Listen to your dreams
by ercarterfan
Summary: A strange twist of events brings a stranger back to the ER. Can Carter help her to get her life back together after an accident and twist of events reunites two old friends.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: Ah yet once again I don't own the characters of ER. If I did things would be a lot different and there would be a lot more angst between Carter and Abby. I just occasionally borrow them for a little entertainment and personal enjoyment.  
  
Summary: A strange twist of events brings a stranger back to the ER. Can Carter help her to get her life back together after a simple accident and twist of events reunites two old friends.  
  
A/N: This story takes place is Season 10, but Carter didn't remain in Africa that second time. He came home Luka after getting him back. There is no Kem and definitely no Kem baby. Carter and Abby are back together.  
  
The dream  
  
A dream was only dream wasn't it? It was a question that John Carter had asked himself many times over the past 6 months. Yet, the dream that he had, was one that had come many times. Not just once or twice like the occasional night time haunt but several times. Always starting and ending the same way. He hoped that he hadn't awoken Abby who was sleeping next to him when he had bolted from his sleep from the dream rather than from the annoying noise of an alarm clock.  
  
He shook himself trying to get rid of the thoughts that were in his head. There's nothing that I can do about it. I can't stop it or prevent it or change anything that's happened or that is going to happen. Besides the woman that was in this dream was one that he hadn't seen in, what was it five or six years? They parted as friends, said that they would stay in touch with each other but that didn't happen. Not that he had expected it too, you always say that you are going to, but the letters never come and you never do manage to make that phone call, the longer time passes the harder it is to bring yourself to make that call. He wouldn't be making that phone call now. No matter how many times he had the same dream, he couldn't bring himself to make that phone call. "It's only a dream, just because you dream it doesn't mean that it is going to happen."  
  
John pulled his arms tighter around Abby who was sleeping next to him. She was the woman who had stolen his heart so long ago, but that he had just finally managed to make amends with and bring her back into his life. They were happy, at least on the outside they appeared to be happy. Carter knew that he was happy with her; things were slowly getting back to that somewhat normal stage. Eric was with Maggie on his meds and doing better. That had relieved a lot of the stress that was between them. He had sat down with her and explained why he had done what he had, and for the most part she seemed to be willing to accept it.  
  
"Did you have that dream again?" A groggy not all the way awake Abby asked.  
  
"Yeah I did." Carter said. One of their promises to each other was not to keep things secrete anymore, if something was bothering them, that they would be honest with each other and tell the other one. They needed to learn that they could lean on each other and not be afraid to burden the other with their troubles.  
  
"Are you still afraid that it is some kind of ominous omen?" Abby asked now as she snuggled closer to Carter. She had no idea who this woman was, but she knew that this dream was bothering him a great deal.  
  
"Not really, it is just really sad that I keep having the same one over and over again. I'm sure that it was probably just something that I ate before I went to bed." He said running his hand thru her hair, "probably your cooking." He tried to joke.  
  
"Ha, ha, Carter that's really funny." Abby said. "You cooked last night not me. I was working until 10 last night. I want to go back to sleep, I have the night shift tonight."  
  
"Well then that is what probably definitely did it." Carter said kissing the top of her head now softly. "You know I don't want to get out of this bed right now."  
  
"Well you don't want to be late either." Abby said rolling away from him as she wrapped her arms around her pillow. She yawned as she buried her head now into that pillow. "And I'm definitely not ready to get up yet."  
  
John smiled, "get some more sleep I will see you later when you come on shift. We'll be ships passing in the night again." He slowly got up off the bed, really not wanting to leave her side, but knowing that if he didn't he was going to be late for work. After everything that had happened he didn't want Weaver to think that he wasn't serious about his job. He enjoyed being an attending at County. He walked into the bathroom and took a hot shower letting the water clear any cobwebs that remained in his sleepy head. He made short work of getting dressed and before he left the room gave Abby yet one more kiss on the top of her now sleeping head.  
  
Things were going so well for her and he was definitely proud of her. She was about to finish her fourth year of med school and in a few short months would be a doctor. He was looking forward to going to her graduation and being the first person to say, congratulations Dr. Lockhart. She was going to be a damn fine doctor. He had always had faith in her, from the first minute she walked into that ER doing her first ER rotation.  
  
He walked outside, the sun was just starting to come up and the sky was filled with those brilliant predawn colors. The oranges, pinks, and purples coloring the low clouds that were hanging in the sky. He sighed softly, it was one of those romantic skies, the kind that you wanted to share with the person that you loved with your arms wrapped around them as you took the beauty in. He climbed in his jeep and started it before taking one last look at the sky and navigating the streets towards the hospital. The trip didn't take long, it never did. He pulled into a parking spot in the garage, gathered up his things, locked the jeep and started to walk inside.  
  
"Good Morning Jerry." Carter said in his best cherry morning voice. "Has it been busy?"  
  
"Good Morning Dr. Carter. No it's been pretty quiet for about the last 2 hours now. Dr. Kovac is sleeping in exam 3 and I believe that Dr. Pratt is sleeping in exam 4, although I'm not sure on that one." Jerry replied as he reached for a ringing phone.  
  
Carter headed into the lounge, put his bag and coat inside his locker, exchanging them for a lab coat and stethoscope. Same locker for the past several years, same morning ritual, well it wasn't just a morning ritual he had done it at night too. Seniority had its privileges though. It meant not having to take as many night shifts anymore. He didn't mind working nights, but it was nice to have non-vampire hours now. He had been in this hospital for 10 years now and had watched a lot of people come and go. He shut his locker as he hung his stethoscope in its familiar place around his neck. Before starting that walk out to the admit desk to start what was probably going to be a very long and busy day. His shift went by with out many complications and nothing major had come in. What Carter had seen during the day had been mostly sprain, bumps, and a few cases of stomach bugs. Nothing that out of the ordinary had come into County, nothing complicated any traumas that were gun shots or stabbings. There had been one MVA during the day and for Chicago that was unusual.  
  
He glanced up at the clock. Two hours to go now that it was a quarter past five. He was getting ready to go into an exam room when Jerry got his attention. "Dr. Carter, MVA five minute ETA. There are three victims, one major and two minor."  
  
"I'm on it Jerry. Get Dr. Chen to give me a hand." Carter said as he grabbed a trauma gown and headed outside to wait for the coming ambulance. It didn't take more than a couple of minutes before Chen was standing outside with him. They made small talk as they waited for them to get there.  
  
Carter was up and at the back doors of the ambulance pulling them open when it came to a stop, "What do you have for us today Doris?" Carter asked as he saw the familiar paramedics face inside the doors.  
  
"We have an approximate 38 year old male, restrained passenger, t- bone accident driver's side; vitals are stable, open tib-fib fracture other than that he appears to be okay." Doris said as they slid the first patient out.  
  
"Deb take him to Trauma one." Carter said as he waited for Doris to tell him about the second patient. "Greg Johnson, driver of the second car, he's a 50 yr old male complaining of severe chest pain and shortness of breath, alert and oriented."  
  
"Okay let's head to exam 2 with this one." Carter said as they headed into the hospital. "I thought you had three?"  
  
"They were still working on extricating the driver of the car that this guy hit." She said. "She should be coming in shortly; they almost had her out when we left with these two."  
  
Carter started to treat the driver of the second car. From the looks of things had had suffered an MI which is what caused him to have the accident and hit the other car. They got him stabilized and on his way up to the Cath lab for angioplasty.  
  
"Dr. Carter ambulance pulling up the third victim from the MVA," Jerry said to Carter.  
  
Carter was at the ambulance bay door as they came rolling in. "35 year old restrained driver t-bone collision. LOC at the scene, prolonged extrication, and bp is 80/50, gave her 2 liters on the scene, and couldn't get her intubated." The medic rattled off to Carter as they headed into trauma 2.  
  
They hurried to get the patient hooked up to monitors as they started to work on her. "Dr. Carter sats are down to 75." He heard Sam say to him.  
  
"Okay give me a 7 ET tube and push suxs and atomidate." Carter said as he moved to the head of the bed. Carter looked down as he got ready to tube the patient. "Oh god it's Anna." He gasped as he moved to put the tube in. Reality hit him full on in the face as he realized that this was the dream starting to come true. 


	2. Tossed into the nightmare

Tossed into the nightmare. Carter slid the tube into place. This was not happening. His friend was not laying on a trauma gurney with her life in his hands. "I'm in bag her." Carter said as he moved to listen to make sure the tube was in place. His heart was beating fast now as the adrenaline started to fill his body. "You are not going to die Anna so don't you even think that about doing that in my trauma room Anna, not today and not on my shift." Carter said to her almost lifeless and broken body. Carter quickly pulled himself together, "CBC, chem. 7, type and cross, trauma panel, get me a c-spine and chest films." Carter started to bark orders, as he pushed down on her abdomen. Damn it was hard and he could see it starting to expand. She probably nicked her liver or her spleen, which would explain why her blood pressure was slowly starting to fall. "Hang a unit of O, and keep that saline wide open. We're going to have to take her upstairs." Carter kicked the breaks off the gurney as the packed up to move. The trip upstairs to the OR was one of the longest ones that he had ever taken. He had made many of those rides from the ER to the OR but never with a friend as the patient laying on the gurney. Carter put her in the capable hands of Dr. Corday before heading back down to the ER leaving instructions that he wanted to be paged when she came out of surgery. He knew that it was probably Max that had been brought in on the other gurney. He stopped in to check on him, for being in an accident that left Anna in that kind of shape, he sure looked good. "Hi there Max, long time no see." Carter said trying to be friendly. "Ah Dr. Carter, if I remember right, it has been a long time." Max said looking at him, "my wife how is she?" Carter tried not to act surprised hearing that they were married. "Anna is up in surgery right now. She is in bad shape, but as soon as word comes down, I will let you know. You look like your doing pretty good." "Considering everything that has happened today yeah I would say that I am." He said not looking happy, but then Carter probably would not look very happy if someone had just told him that Abby was up in surgery and could very well die. "If she had just been watching where the hell she was going none of this would have happened." "The accident wasn't her fault." Carter found himself feeling like he needed to defend Anna right now. "Yeah whatever, how long am I going to be stuck here?" Max asked Carter, "Because I have a very important meeting that I need to be at in the morning." Carter looked at him, picking up his chart. "It looks like they are getting ready to discharge you." He could not believe that Max wanted to get up and leave when Anna was upstairs. "Don't you want to be with your wife, when she gets into recovery?" Max just gave Carter this look of that clearly said go to hell. "I will be back to check on her after my meeting is done. I think that since this is a hospital that she will be okay while I am gone for a few hours. It's not like she needs me to sit there and hold her hand." Carter wondered how his friend could have married someone who seemed so cold and indifferent towards her. Love made you do things that you normally would not do, he knew that, but he could not help but wonder now if there was not more to this than what their appeared to be. "Yeah sure," Carter turned to walk away from him, "I'm sure that she will be well taken care of while you are at your meeting." With that he walked out the door and sat down at the admit desk to work on his charts. It did not take him long to finish them as he sat there now waiting for a page from surgery to let him know how Anna was doing. Max had been released and said that he would be back later to check on her. Carter looked up to see Abby walking into the ER. He followed her into the lounge and as she put her stuff in their locker, Carter wrapped his arms around her waist hugging onto her tightly. "I didn't get the chance to tell you how much I love you." Abby looked up at him and could see that there was something wrong in his deep brown eyes, "I love you too John, what is it? What is wrong?" "They brought Anna in today." Carter said, "The dream that I've been telling you about that I have been having over and over again. She's the one who's in it." "Is she going to be okay?" Abby was worried about him. She had told him that dreams did not mean anything and here this one was actually starting to unfold in his awake state. "I am waiting for surgery to page me when she gets out." Carter said looking at her, "she was hurt pretty bad, but I'm sure that Dr. Corday can fix the damage that the accident caused." "I'm sure she can too baby." Abby said holding onto him. She knew that Anna was a friend to him and that he had ever right to be concerned about her. "Hey you're off why don't you go upstairs and see if there's any news. I am on and I think that I can keep the ER under control. Besides I know you and you are going to worry yourself sick until you know for sure." "Yeah that might not be a bad idea." Carter said as his pager started to beep. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. "That's Dr. Corday. She must be out." He leaned in and kissed Abby. "I'll be back down in a little bit, I want to make sure that's she's okay with my own two eyes." "Yeah, I understand." Abby said as she pulled away from him, "besides you are going to make me late for work if I stand here with you much longer. I will talk to you after bit. Why don't you find me before you leave for home?" "I'll do that." Carter said kissing her cheek as they walked out into the ER again from the lounge. He let go of her as she headed to the admit desk and he headed for the elevator. He took that ride back up to the SICU now, impatient to see an old friend. Well, a friend that he had not seen in a long time. He stopped at the desk to find out where she was before heading down to the room where she was. He stood in the doorway looking at her. That was not the Anna that he remembered. She was black and blue, her eye was almost swollen shut, and her hair was a tangled matted mess. He crossed over to the bed and sat down on the edge. She looked like she was sleeping. He sat there for a minute wondering how so much could change in such a short period. "Carter?" Anna almost asked she was not sure who was sitting there on the edge of the bed, but it sure did look like him. "Hey there," Carter said looking down not at her, peaking at him thru the one eye that she could open. "How are you feeling?" "I suppose that I could feel worse." She said softly. Carter tried to smile at her. "Yeah I suppose you could. You gave me quite the scare when they brought you into my trauma room. Next time you wan to visit you can walk in on your own you know." "I'll try to remember that. But you know that would mean that I would have to do something the easy way." She tried not to laugh because she was sore, but Carter always could make her smile. "What's it been now, five or six years since I saw you last. I didn't think that you would even still be in Chicago, let alone at County." "Well this place grows on you. I could not leave now if I wanted too. I've been here to long, I'm a fixture." Carter said to her. "Max okay?" Anna asked, "I haven't seen him and this is the first chance that I have had to ask." "Yeah he's fine Anna." Carter said, "He'll be back after bit, he said he had some meeting that he needed to attend to, but knew that you were in good hands while you were here. He said that you guys are married now, I guess then congrats are in order huh." "Yeah," she said trying to shift a little in the bed. Carter reached back and instinctively rearranged the pillows so that she was sitting up a little more. "How long have you two been married now?" "Uh three years now," Anna said to him, "we're in Chicago for a pediatrics conference. Max is the guest speaker." "That's great." He said, but that was still no excuse for him to leave her here all alone. "I'm happy for you Anna. I really am. I was worried about you when you left Chicago so suddenly, but it seems that things have worked out for you just fine." "Yeah everything is just fine." She said trying to hide the pain. She closed her eyes so that he could not see the hurt in them. "Sorry I'm just really tired right now. That damn anesthesia does it too you every time." "Yeah," Carter said patting her hand gently. "How about if I let you get some sleep and I will come by and see you tomorrow. We can talk and catch up then." "I'd like that Carter." Anna said with a small, forced smile upon her face. "Sleep well Anna, don't give the nurses up here too much trouble there doctor, I know that doctor's make the worst patients." She kept her eyes closed as she started to drift back into a drug- induced sleep, "I think I can manage to behave myself and do what I am told." Carter got up and headed out of the room. That was not the Anna that he remembered. Something was off with her and it had more to do than with just being knocked for a loop in a car accident. He would talk more with her tomorrow and see if he could figure out what it was. 


	3. Go save the world

**Go save the world**

Carter had stopped in and spoken with Abby for a few minutes before he headed home.  The ER was busy and he was tired so it did not take much to convince him to go home and go to bed. As hard as he tried, Carter did not sleep that much, he tossed and turned worried about what was really up with Anna.  Having Abby working that night at the hospital was not a good thing.  He did not have her arms around him for solace and comfort.  He felt Abby slip into bed about 7:30.  He put his arms around her pulling her in close to him.

          "I missed you." Carter said to her as he kissed the top of her head.

          "I missed you too baby." Abby said snuggling into him, "how's Anna?"

          "She was sleeping when I left her last night.  She seemed to be doing okay considering everything that she has been thru. They had to remove her spleen and repair a liver laceration but she is going to be okay.  It appears that those were the worst of her injuries, the rest time will have to heal." Carter said.

          "That's good, I'm sure she's going to be just fine. Like you said time and the human body will heal the rest." Abby replied snuggled happily in his arms.

          "There's something not right with her though." Carter said softly.

          "What do you mean John?" Abby asked.  "She was in a car accident and you haven't seen her in a long time, I'm sure that time has changed her a little bit.  She is probably not the same person that you remember. People change whether it is for the better of the worse and there is nothing that we can do about that, but be there for our friends when they need us to be, and John you have done that.  You were there when she needed someone the most.  You saved her life and I am sure that she is grateful for that."

          "No, there's more to it than that." Carter said, "It's something that she's hiding.  I am going to find out what it is though.  I think that it has to do with her relationship with Max.  I would actually put money on that." 

          Abby yawned as she closed her eyes, "you might be reading more into it than what there really is John.  You might want to be careful before you go jumping to conclusions."

          Carter's head was resting on top of her now as they were snuggled up next to each other, his arms firmly around her holding her tight to him, "when I first met Max there was something wrong with him, don't get me wrong, Anna said he was a recovering drug addict.  I don't think he got the recovery part down right." John said softly, "I'm worried that she's going to get hurt."

          "John honey, I understand that Anna is your friend, and that you are the kind of person who does give his friendship away half-heartedly.  Nevertheless, Anna is a grown woman, I think that if, and I am saying a big if here, she was in trouble she would turn to her friends for help.  Didn't you say she was a doctor, emergency medicine and pediatrics, which makes me think that she is a very bright woman who would not get into any kind of relationship that was not good for her? She would know from seeing it happen to others where those kinds of relationships go, and that she would need to get out of it."

          "We all do crazy things that we normally wouldn't do when we are in love. It makes us blind to the things that we don't want to see.  Makes us turn the other cheek no matter what happens to us.  We never understand why the women who come into our ER time after time again having it happen so many times, go back to those who hurt them, they say it's cause they love them, and maybe somewhere deep inside she loves Max that way and is willing to turn the other cheek to protect him.  She packed up so fast for Philadelphia that we never got the chance to say all that needed to be said between the two of us.  I just hope that she knows that she can trust me, that I'd be willing to help her get thru this, that we'd be willing to help get her thru what ever it is that is going on. " Carter said as he placed a small kiss on top of her head pushing her eyes all the way closed, "I'm just going to talk to her, nothing more, after all she will be waking up in a hospital room all alone and no one should have to be alone. I just want her to know that I'm still her friend and that she can lean on me if she needs to while things get worked out."

          Abby knew where that was coming from all too well, "I understand more than you know Carter." She said as she smiled sleepily at him, "go, be with her, be her friend, do what you do best, and that's helping those who need your help.  I trust you Carter.  She needs all the friends she can get, but I hope that she knows just what kind of friend you are and how far you are willing to go for your friends. I will be right here beside you helping you to help her if there is anything that she needs help with.  But don't be surprised or hurt if after all this time she's a happily married woman who wants nothing more than to get out of a hospital and go home."

          "You are so full of flattery this morning.  Makes me remember just how lucky of a man I am to have you back in my life Abby. I will not be if there is nothing and she is happy and Max is treating her well, then I will wish her the best of luck and send her on her way, just happy to be able to see an old friend after several years. However, if not, I want to help her.  She did not seem like the same person after all this time. " Carter said kissing her head once more before starting to get out of the bed.

"She probably isn't the same Carter." Abby said softly sleep was starting to take hold of her, "but talk to her see what she says.  It never hurts to just talk."

"Sleep well baby. After last night, you deserve it.  I'll be quiet if you need me you can always call my cell or my pager, I'll be at the hospital, I'm sure they can find me too."

          She just nodded as she was drifting off, "go save the world John Carter." Abby said before her body gave into the sleep that had been pulling at her.

          Carter took a quick shower and got ready to leave.  He hoped that after all this time Anna would still trust him enough to know that she could talk to him.  He would do what ever was within his power to help her if she needed his help.


	4. Pain hidden in your eyes

**A/N: ** okay I am putting a warning at the beginning of this chapter because it is going to get a little rough.  There is some adult language, not a whole lot I did tried to keep it moderated and this chapter touches on Spousal abuse, both the emotional and physical sides.  

**Pain hidden in your eyes.**

          Carter parked his jeep in a space and headed up to the SICU.  He stopped at the nurses' station to let them know that he was there before heading down the hallway to her room.  Carter looked at Anna laying there almost with a look of defeat on her face as she slept. She was as beautiful to him as the day that he left county.  She looked the same on the outside, but inside, that is where he was sure that she was a very different Anna.

          Carter stood there for a minute watching her, before taking that deep breath and crossing over to the bed.  He sat down in a chair next to it.  She was not going to wake up alone in this hospital. All those times that he had woken up alone, afraid, and scared after the stabbing.  He hoped that being there would let her know that he could be trusted.  That no matter what was going on in her life that he was her friend.  He watched her start to stir from her sleep.  As she came from the land of dreams, Carter leaned over the bed rail, "hey there sleepy head." He found himself pushing the stray hair from her eyes, more of a playful gesture than the loving one it used to be. 

          "Hey there yourself," Anna said as she opened her eyes.

          "You're looking better this morning." He said, "Do you feel any better?"

          "Yes and no," was Anna's reply as she shifted in the bed trying to get more comfortable.

          "Well that's better than an absolute not." He said smiling at her. "I thought that you might like some company while you are recuperating. That and we have a lot of catching up to do there missy.  You've been gone a long time."

          Anna tried to smile, "yeah we do. So tell me Dr. Carter, how's life treating you."

          "Good," he said not taking his eyes off her, "things are going really well.  I just finished up as chief resident and I'm an attending down in the ER now."

          "Five years Carter, what did you take the long road?" She asked.

          "You could say that." He said, she was keeping the conversation focused on him, "there were a few bumps in the road on my way to completing my residency, but they are behind me now.  Tell me now what has the great Dr. Del Amico been up to? Surely you have finished double boarding now and have some great career going for you." This was his feeble attempt to shift the conversation back to her.

          "Yeah I wrapped that up and I'm working at a hospital in Philadelphia right now.  Max and I are here for a conference on Pediatrics." She said not wanting to go into much detail about her life with him, the less anyone else knew the better of she would be.  She did not want Max getting upset with her going on about her personal life with Carter of all people. A few days and she would be on her back to leading the same life in Philadelphia and could forget that she had even been in Chicago. "The sooner I can get back the better I'll be.  No offense here Carter but Chicago just is not the city for me.  I tried it once and it didn't fit then and it doesn't fit now either."

          "I'm not telling you, you have to stay in Chicago, well you do for a little while until you get better." He said looking at her will all honesty trying to figure out what she was hiding.  Behind those eyes of hers' he could see the pain that she was trying desperately for no one else to see. "I'm just trying to catch up with an old friend who happened to come into my ER the hard way."

          "I know Carter." She said withdrawing a little more from him, "it's just that there really isn't that much to talk about.  Max and I got married a couple of years ago.  It felt like the right thing to do, you know, I mean I was unhappy with out him in my life and now he is there all the time.  It is what I wanted and now it is what I have. I am a busy pediatrician too, 12 hour shift in an ER.  It's what I've worked all my life for and now, I finally have it."

          Her voice was not telling him that she was the happily married woman that she was trying to project.  He chose his words carefully as he thought of the best way to broach the subject.  He did not want to upset her, but he felt the need to push her little to talk to him, to open up and really talk to him.  He wanted her to know that he could see through the façade that she was putting up.  

          "It's okay Anna; if you are happy I am happy for you." Carter said softly, "forgive me for asking, but I really feel that I need to, even after all this time." Carter paused unsure of how to say this other than to come out and say it rather bluntly. "Is Max still using?"

          Her deep silence gave him the answer that he needed whether or not she knew it.  He watched her face change as she tried to come up with an answer, a lie, her eyes giving away that she wasn't going to be honest with him, "of course not Carter.  He has not done that in years.  I told you when I left Chicago that he was clean and he has been ever since."

          "Hey, hey now, you don't have to defend him to me." He said taking her hand into his, "I just worry about you, you're one of my friends and that's what I do."

          Carter watched as Max walked into the room and Anna completely changed, as if into a different person altogether.  Whatever self-confidence that she had left the minute he came waltzing in. 

"Hey honey." She said so soft-spoken that her voice barely carried across the room.

          "Anna baby," Max said as he approached the other side of the bed, and kissed the top of her head. "I was so worried about you.  I am glad that you are okay.  You gave all of us a good scare there.  I wanted to check on you before I headed over to another meeting."  Max turned to Carter, with his temper short, "thank you for keeping an eye on MY wife, Dr. Carter, I'm sure that she appreciates the extra attention that you have been able to pay her, but if you don't mind I would like a few minutes alone with her before I have to leave."

          Carter got up to leave the room, "hey I'll be back after bit to check on you again before I leave the hospital." He was out the door shortly after saying it, not wanting to upset Max even more than he already appeared to be, not that he wanted to leave Anna alone with that man, but they were in a hospital what could he do….Carter almost didn't want to think about the answer to that.

          Max watched the door go shut completely before he even thought about saying anything to his wife.  His temper was flaring and he was not happy that she was sitting in there being all buddy-buddy with an ex-boyfriend, well ex-something or other.  He knew that Carter and Anna had never really had the time to get a relationship going but he knew that they had been close until Max had gotten her out of Chicago. He was going to remind her of her place. "What do you think you are doing?" He snapped at her grabbing her by the hair pulling her face so that she was now looking up at him.

          "Max let go please that hurts." She cried keeping her voice as low as she could so that no one would hear, "we were just talking.  I did not ask him to come here.  He was sitting in here when I woke up baby, really there is nothing going on.  I did not say anything to him. Please, please let go."

          He yanked her head up off the bed so that it was closer to him, "you'd better be telling me the truth, or so help me god Anna you will regret more than you have regretted anything in your life." Saying that he slammed her head back down onto the bed as he flung her away from him, "I don't care what you tell him or how you tell him, but I do not want to see him in this room again." Max's anger from being late fully directed at her. It was so easy to take his frustrations out on his wife, "you have made me late for more than one meeting this weekend you stupid whore, don't push your limits with me.  We will be going home when my meetings are done, and if that means you sign out AMA then you had better do it."

          "Max, my god I had my spleen removed, my liver sewn back together and you are expecting me to walk out of here in less than 2 days, what do I look like superwoman?" Anna said her eyes almost pleading with him.

          "You will do what you are told. You faithless little bitch. Don't you dare talk back to me, if you know what's good for you, you will shut the hell up." He said bringing his hand across her face. "You are my good for nothing, low lying, and worth-less, wife.  You are nothing with out me.  You would have nothing with out me.  Nothing, you cannot do anything right, you only have that job of yours because I pulled some strings and got it for you. You owe me more than you can ever pay back Anna.  So don't you even think about telling that little friend of yours a damn thing about our lives.  You are not to talk to anyone the rest of the time that you are here, because I know that you can't keep your bloody mouth shut." 

Anna could feel her cheek stinging almost on fire from where his hand connected with it.  She brought her hand up to cover it as she fought back the tears that were once again forming in her eyes.  At least right now, she was so black and blue that no one would notice a little more bruising.  

He grabbed her arm-twisting it into an extremely unnatural position causing pain to shake thru her once again.  "Don't fight me on this one Anna, you lose every time, this time won't be any different. When I get back Dr. baby-face out there had better be long gone and not coming back." He put more pressure on her arm, "do you understand me?"

          Anna shook her head in agreement praying now that he would let go of her arm before it snapped in two.  "Yes I understand you."  

          She watched as he stormed out of the room.  It was the same story just a different day.  Anna had been at the receiving end of his anger since shortly after they had gotten married.  Things were honestly good between them for the first year that they were married, but after that it all went downhill, and it went downhill fast.  She lay back against the bed curling up with her back to the door so that no one could see her tears falling into her pillow.


	5. You can't hide the truth

You can't hide the truth  
  
Carter was standing at the nurses' station when he watched Max storming out of Anna's room. He kept his eyes on the man while pretending to carry on a conversation with the nurse that was sitting there. Max stopped walking and stood next to Carter for a minute as he tried to figure out just what he was going to say to the man.  
Max didn't try to hide the anger that he knew was across his face. He hated having his buttons pushed and hated even more that this man was trying to push his way back into his wife's life. Anna was his now and there was no place for Carter. "Dr. Carter, I would appreciate it, if you would stay away from Anna the rest of the time that she is here." Max said putting force behind his voice. "She has a surgeon overseeing her care right now and she doesn't need you involved in her care. We are grateful for what you did for her while she was in the ER, but your services are no longer needed while she is in the SICU."  
"You're concern for your wife is very touching Dr. Rosher, but I follow up with all my patients while they are in the hospital not just your wife's." Carter said simply, not letting Max's tone intimidate him. "So unless my presence is some how disturbing your wife, or impeding with her medical care, I can see no reason why I can't follow her care until discharge." Carter turned his back now to the man.  
"Dr. Carter, I am only going to ask you once to stay away from Anna. Her care doesn't concern you. My wife will be leaving this facility soon, actually the sooner the better as far as I am concerned. Just leave her alone." When Max finished saying that he crossed over at caught the elevator to leave the hospital. He didn't need some old flame of Anna's tearing apart his life.  
As soon as the elevator doors were closed, Carter was back down the hall and into Anna's room. Her back was to him, but he could hear her softly crying, as if she was trying to hide it from the world. He crossed over so that he was on the side that she was facing. She didn't look up at him, she didn't have to. "Anna." Carter said softly, not wanting to startle her.  
"Go away please John, you shouldn't be here." Anna said not lifting her head up, she didn't want him to see her face, see the tear stains that were now under her eyes, to see the red patch on her face from where she had been hit. He did not need to be getting into the middle of this right now. She didn't need Max more upset than he already was.  
"Look at me Anna, look at me and tell me that every thing is alright and I will walk out that door and not come back." He said softly. "I will pretend that I didn't see anything and let you go back to your perfect little pretend world." His tone was harsher with her than he had intended it to be, but he didn't want to believe that someone that he had cared for and respected was letting herself be used as a punching bag.  
She tried to lift herself up, but everywhere hurt too much to right now. Her face still stung from where he had slapped her, her arm hurt from having it twisted, her insides hurt from being wrapped up in her car like a Christmas present. "Everything is fine John."  
"Look at me and say that Anna, look at my face and say it. You never could lie to me and I doubt that you can now. If you want me to believe you then you look at me and you say it to my face." Carter pushed her; he was trying to see if she would break under the pressure that someone had found out that her little world wasn't what she thought it was. Her secret was no longer a secret; Carter knew what was going on. When the nurse told him that when Dr. Corday reviewed the x-rays she had found several old healed fractures, Carter knew that Max was slapping, no knocking her around, and that angered him.  
She found the strength somehow to force her eyes up to meet his. She knew she couldn't lie to him but she was going to try her damnedest to pull it off. "Carter, look nothing," her eyes cast downward now at the floor. She had to fight with everything that she had to move them back up to look at his face but when she looked into those concerned big brown eyes she lost all of her resolve to lie to him. She was silent for a minute as she tried; she tried her hardest to get the words to come out of her mouth. There was nothing, no words, she couldn't even stutter as she fought back the urge to cry, she couldn't cry in front of him, if she broke down he would certainly know that something wasn't right. She tried it again once more, come on Anna get it right. You can't let him know that there is anything wrong. Max will kill you if you don't get this right. "Carter nothing is.....nothing is....everything is....all right."  
She hadn't been able to look him in the eye. Carter took a deep breath as he sat down next to her, "Anna, don't lie to me. Why are you so afraid of him, we can get you help." He said pushing her hair back from her face. "You are a beautiful, intelligent woman, you don't belong in a situation like this, and we can get you out of it." Carter was being honest with her; he would find a way to help get her out of this. He didn't want to see her suffer at the hands of a man like Max.  
"John, Max is my husband; my place is at his side." She said, "You are talking nonsense now."  
"No Anna." Carter said, "You do not belong with a man who would hit you and hurt you, you don't need that."  
"He doesn't do it all the time Carter. He was just upset that's all." She found herself falling into that pattern of defending him again, "look you weren't in here; I said something that I shouldn't have and I made him mad. It was my fault. I shouldn't have upset him like that. He's sorry that he did it and I know that it won't happen again."  
"Anna do you want to explain all the healed fractures that Dr. Corday found on your x-rays. How long has he been using you as a human punching bag?"  
"John, you are not asking me what I think you are asking me." She replied back to him not looking at him now rather at the bed.  
"Yeah I am Anna." He said, "how long has Max been abusing you?"  
"Max doesn't abuse me Carter." Anna said her tone changing as she got into a defensive posture. "I am active in a sport that's how I got all those fractures. I kick box."  
"You must take quite a beating then when you do." Carter said looking at her. Watching her change, this wasn't the Anna he remembered at all. The one who was full of confidence that didn't take anything from anyone, who would defend a woman who was being beaten with everything she had. She was just the opposite now, defending her husband the man who was beating her with everything that she had.  
"Yeah it's pretty competitive," she said thankful that he seemed to be buying it.  
Carter could see that she was relaxing again as he pretended to buy her story although he knew that she was just feeding him a bunch of lines. "Anna you know that it's not going to get any better, in fact you of all people with everything that you see should know that it's only going to get worse, what's it going to take for you to wake up and see that."  
"You don't know what you are talking about Carter; you don't know the first thing about my marriage, or what goes on." She said to him. "I'm fine, everything is just fine, why can't you let it go?"  
"Let it go, what? That one of my friends is that scum's punching bag."  
"That's my husband you are talking about John, you seem to keep forgetting that." Anna said now able to look him in the eyes, "what goes on between us, goes on between us, the entire world doesn't need to be involved in it. I don't get into your relationships, please just stay out of my marriage."  
"Anna when you came thru the door of the ER, what happened to you medically became my priority." Carter said, "Let me help you, let me help you get the help that you need to get out of this cycle."  
"There is no cycle here John. There is......nothing wrong....with....my marriage." She said trying to fight back the uncontrollable sobs that were about ready to rack her body.  
"Anna honey look," Carter said as he put his arms around her trying to let her know that while she was here and talking to him she was safe, that no one could hurt her while he was there, "you're safe here, I'm here and he won't hurt you while you are with me. But you have to let me help you."  
"He'll.....snap." She said crying into John's shoulder, "I can't leave; you don't understand he won't let me leave. I can't walk away."  
He looked at her, his eyes filled now with concern for her and her safety. "Anna are you afraid for your life, has he threatened to kill you?"  
She didn't want to go there; she didn't want to admit that she was afraid of her own husband. The person who had promised to love her for the rest of her life, had promised her that if she told anyone about anything, or if she tried to walk away from her life with him that he would end hers right there and then. After everything that he had done to her, Anna still loved him, or did she. Did she love the man that she was with, or the man that she had married but yet time had changed?  
Carter became concerned even more when Anna didn't answer him, she was awfully quiet now. Almost as if she wasn't there with him anymore. "Anna, did he threaten to kill you?" Carter asked her again, patiently waiting for her to answer. He needed to know so that he could make sure she was going to be safe.  
Anna debated whether or not to tell him. She knew if she did she would never be safe again. She would be signing her own death warrant in Max's eyes and she had never known him not to go thru with a threat. In all the time that they had been together he had never made any idle threats. She nodded ever so slowly yet hopefully enough that John would get what she was trying to tell him.  
John looked at Anna, he could tell that she was scared, her hands were shaking and her crying had softened from sobs to a steady stream of tears rolling down her cheeks. "We'll find you someplace safe. He won't get you I promise, but you have to tell the authorities. I will be right by your side, Abby and I can get you thru this, we will find a way to make sure that he can't hurt you anymore. Do you understand me Anna, do you know that I won't let him hurt you anymore?"  
Anna couldn't let the fear go that had gripped her once she had told Carter the truth, she looked at him, wanting to feel safe but right now she didn't. She wanted to believe him that he could keep Max from hurting her but she didn't see how he could. There was no one that would ever be able to protect her from her husband. She let her eyes say more than her voice ever could to Carter. 


	6. Time Out

Time out.  
  
Carter could tell from Anna's reaction that she wanted his help, but she couldn't ask him for it. He stayed by her side until she fell back into her drug-induced sleep. The pain meds she was on taking her into a land of deep slumber. He made the arrangements to move her to another part of the hospital, under a different name so that Max wouldn't be able to find her. How could someone treat someone with such a good heart and beautiful soul so horribly? He didn't know, he wanted to strangle Max for hurting her like that, but against his better judgment knew that he should just stay away from him, let him think that he was doing what he had asked, staying away from his wife.  
He went and found Dr. Corday, since she was Anna's surgeon and he wanted her to be able to continue with her care. He explained the situation to her, letting her know what he had done. She agreed with him that this was probably the best thing for Anna right now. He walked back to her room, watching her sleeping from the door to her room, 'oh Anna, how could it have come to this? How did you get yourself into something this awful?" Carter knew that he needed to keep Max from her. Anna had fallen for his charms before, when she had taken him back into her life leaving behind her residency at County to return to Philadelphia to work things out with him. He was afraid that if she were left alone with him again, he would find the words to manipulate her to give him another chance.   
Carter knew what it was like to love someone with all your soul that was the way that he loved Abby. That was probably the way that Anna loved Max, to be so willing to forget everything that he had done to her and give him another chance. In Carter's eyes Max had run out of chances and he would protect his friend, with his life if that's what it came down to. He didn't love her the same way anymore, moving from the infatuation stage, to more of a deep lasting friendship with her. He'd stick his neck out for anyone who he considered a friend, that's what in his eyes friends did for each other. Carter watched Anna start to stir from her sleep. He moved from the door to her bedside pulling the chair that was there over so that she would know that she wasn't alone anymore.   
"Hey there sleepy," he said to her pushing the hair back from her face.   
"Hi John," Anna said as she opened her eyes all the way, still feeling groggy as she tried to pull herself up in the bed a little more.   
"Here let me help you." Carter said putting his hand under her shoulder to help pull her up in the bed a little more. He knew that her stomach muscles right now were probably useless and hurt her to move much. He moved the pillow so that it was more under her head as he got her into more of a sitting position than a laying down one.   
"Thanks." She smiled weakly at him.   
"Can you get me a drink please?"   
"Yeah not a problem," Carter reached for the water pitcher that was sitting on the tray next to her bed, "here you go. Drink slow, it's been awhile since you've had anything."   
Anna nodded as she took small sips from the glass that he had handed her. The exhaustion from everything was clear on her face and Carter couldn't help but notice it as he looked at her. "How's the pain?" He said slipping back into more of a doctor-patient conversation with her for the time being.   
"It hurts." She said looking at him, "in more ways than one."   
Carter looked at her, picking up on the subtle meaning in her statement. He knew that this was hard on her, not just the physical aspects of being in the car accident, but the emotional side of walking away and admitting to him that her life, the one that she had been pretending was alright, in fact was just the opposite. Right now he just wanted to get her healed from the accident, they would deal with everything else once he knew that she was stronger. "On a scale of 1 to 10, oh hell," he smiled at her, "doctor you know the drill."   
"Yeah I know the drill," she tried to return the smile, "I'd say about a 7."   
"Well then let's see if we can't get you something, make you more comfortable." Carter picked up the chart from the end of the bed. She was only a few hours post-operative so the pain was to be expected, but they could also manage it. Carter made a note on the chart and then adjusted her morphine drip. "That should help a little. Here's the button, you know how to use it."   
"Yeah I do." She said wrapping her hands around the little black button. "Thanks for everything John."   
Carter watched as the morphine started to kick in and her eyes were getting heavy again, "you're more than welcome Anna. It's what friends do for friends. You're safe here, Corday and I are the only ones who know where you are at, Max won't be able to find you this time, at least while you are here. I will do what I can to protect you, and together, after you're better..." He didn't' get the chance to finish his sentence, her eyes were now closed and the rise and fall of her chest let him know that she was back asleep. Looking down at her, he smiled, "you just need a time out, and that's what I'm gonna give you. We'll get it fixed Anna, I can promise you that you will be safe as long as I'm watching over you." 


	7. Desperate Thoughts of Escape

Desperate thoughts of Escape  
  
Anna had slept most of the day, letting her body heal. She had never remembered being so tired. When she came back to full consciousness the room was dark and she was alone, which didn't surprise her. Carter was probably downstairs working in the ER and well Max hopefully would be nowhere to be found. She blinked as she pulled herself painfully up in the bed. Her sides were sore, the muscles in her abdomen not wanting to work to help her move. She wanted to get up and move a little bit to help ease some of the soreness that she was feeling. She pulled the blanket off her and tried to get her legs to go over the side of the bed. Standing was a lot harder than she thought it would be. She looked at her legs, seeing that they were black and blue. She had taken quite a beating in the car accident. Having the dash wrapped around her, as she remembered having to have the firemen cut her free from the confines of the crumpled car.  
She looked up as a woman entered the room and vaguely remembered the face from the ER when she was here on her residency. But she couldn't place the name for the life of her.  
"Ah Dr. Del Amico, it is so nice to see that you are awake and wanting to move around some." Elizabeth said as she walked over to the bedside, "I'm Dr. Corday, you probably don't remember me, and I'm the surgeon who performed your operation."  
"Dr. Corday, thank you for saving my life." Anna said softly, looking at the British surgeon. She was grateful for what she had done for her so far.  
"You're most welcome." Elizabeth said looking at chart now, "I see that you must be feeling a tad bit better if you are trying to, shall we say, escape from the confines of the bed."  
"That I am." Anna replied, "I know that I need to get up and move a little bit, I am getting pretty stiff from just laying there."  
"That you are right about. But I don't want you to overdo it either. Just short trips and I would like to have someone walk with you the first few times; those legs of yours will probably be a bit wobbly." Elizabeth responded. "And if you're feeling up to it, I will have them bring you something to eat, maybe some Jell-O or ice cream, toast you just have to name it."  
"Toast and tea would be nice." Anna said shifting her weight as she scooted towards the edge of the bed, "I um, well," she felt a little embarrassed to have to ask, "Need to use the little girl's room."  
Elizabeth put her arm out to help steady her, "come on then I'll take you, since I'm here."  
Anna smiled shyly, "thank you." As she stood up trying to get her footing, her legs felt like they were made of rubber and didn't want to support her weight. She could feel her knee about to give out. She was thankful to have someone there to help her, or she might have never made it across the room. She might not have made it more than a step away from her bed.  
Elizabeth helped and supported a very wobbly Anna, slowly walking over to the door with her, "I'll wait right here for you and help you back to the bed. Just yell if you need some help otherwise I'm going to leave you alone and give you some sense of privacy."  
Anna nodded a silent thank you for her not insisting on going inside with her. After a few minutes she re-emerged ready to get back to the sanctity of the bed. Her legs wouldn't take her much further than that right now, and her stomach was growling a little. She let Dr. Corday help her back across the room and into the bed.  
"Could you bring me some paper and something to write with?" Anna asked. "There's something that I need to do."  
"I'm sure that I can find that for you." Elizabeth said, "I'll check at the nurses station when I stop to have them get you some toast and tea."  
"Thank you, Dr. Corday that would be most helpful." Anna said not taking her eyes off the woman, "is Dr. Carter working tonight?"  
"Yeah he said that he would be back up to check in on you when he got a break." Elizabeth said not thinking twice about answering her patient's questions. "Just relax for a little bit, get some more sleep and you'll be out of here before you know it."  
The thought of what she was going to do when she was discharged from the hospital terrified her. She couldn't return to her job in Philadelphia, Max would be expecting that and she'd be too easy to find. She couldn't stay here; he'd be looking for her here too. He knew she had friends that worked at County and it wouldn't be hard for her probably to get back on the staff here. She watched the surgeon leave the room as she broke down into tears. She didn't know what she was going to do or where she was going to go, now that home wasn't an option. The thought of never being able to go back to Philadelphia broke her heart in two. Her brothers, her family, they were all there and if Max found her that would be the last time that she was ever able to see them. She had always been close to her family and having to walk away from them like this hurt more than she thought it ever would.  
She tried to stop the tears but the more she wiped away the more fell. She desperately wanted to pull it together, afraid to let anyone see her like this. She had always been so strong willed and so independent. Max had robbed her of those traits. He had made her feel so weak and inferior. That she was nothing but a perpetual screw up who couldn't do anything if she didn't have him there with her. Part of her knew that wasn't true. She had accomplished a lot while they were apart. She had finished her first pediatric residency with out any help from him, and moved into her second residency in emergency medicine with out any help from him. But he was the one that had secured her spot to complete her residency in Philadelphia and had got her the spot on the staff at the hospital where she was currently working as an attending ER pediatrician. So really she hadn't done those things on her own, he had done them for her.   
How could she have let him make her feel like this, how could she let him walk all over her for so long? She had been blinded by his charms, by the love that she had held onto him for so long. It was those feelings that had stopped her from getting into a relationship with Carter, and pushed her into the trap of her current life. But she knew Max hadn't always been like this. Maybe she had done something that had caused him to snap, caused him to fall into the pattern of his old ways. This was some how her fault. She needed to fix it, but she couldn't be near him right now, one look from his eyes and she would crumble, she would go back to closing her eyes when the bad things happened believing him every time he said that it was a mistake that he wouldn't do it again. Well this time he wasn't going to do it again. She wouldn't be there to hear the 'I'm sorry baby please forgive me, give me another chance, I promise it won't happen again.' She wasn't going to be his puppet on a string. She was going to stand on her own too feet no matter how hard it hurt to do. But first she had to find the strength to get to that point. Right now she was nowhere near being that person, being the person who would be strong enough to walk cleanly away from him. 


	8. How do I say goodbye

How do I say goodbye.  
  
Anna sat down with the pen and paper that they had brought to her. She needed to do this, but she wasn't sure how she was going to get it to him, she would cross that bridge when she came to it.  
  
Max,  
  
You know that this isn't easy for me, it never has been easy. In fact I don't know if I can do this now. How don't know how to say goodbye, but I am going to have to try to find the right way to say this to you with out it coming out all wrong. Let me start by saying that no matter what I still love you and this has nothing to do with that. You had my heart from the start and you were the only one to ever hold my heart. I think that's what makes this so hard. I have given you the past five years of my life, everything that I am, everything that I could be, I gave to you.  
  
I have wanted to always believe you when you said that it was the last time. The last time we would fight like that, the last time you would end up in rehab, the last time that I would have to hide the bruises. But it never was, something always managed to happen to start this cycle over again. It has to stop and I know that I have to be the one to stop it. This isn't how I pictured my life with you to be. I would say all of this to you in person, but I know that my resolve wouldn't hold and I would be sucked in by your charm, by your looks, by your words and I can't let that happen again.  
  
My eyes have opened a little; the accident has put things in perspective in a way for me. Right now I know that I am lucky to be alive, that here I am safe and have people around me who really do care about what happens to me. Leaving you the way that I am is killing me inside right now, but to stay with you would kill me too. Love shouldn't hurt like this, it never should hurt. But yet somehow you made it hurt, you found the one way to make me cry, to make me break, to make me want to surrender.  
  
I don't know where I am going to go from here or what I am going to do, thinking about starting over again scares me to death but I have to. So please just find it somewhere inside you to let me walk away. Don't try to find me to talk me out of this cause I won't be found this time. I am not coming back to Philadelphia; I will find a way to tell my family that I love them but that I have to do this before something terrible happens.  
  
Anna stopped writing for a minute wiping the tears away from her eyes as she looked over what she had written so far. This was hurting more than she ever thought it would. But she knew the statistics; she knew that no matter what he said since it had happened more than once now, she was in over her head. And if she didn't let Carter help her out of it now, she would never be able to get out on her own. Max had too hard of a hold on her. She started to write again.  
  
I know that somewhere inside you, there's an undying love for me, and the man that I fell so much in love with is in there, but I can't stand by and wait for you to find that man, or that man to find his way back to me. It's better is we just make a clean break from each other. No more letters and no more phone calls, no dropping by to see how we are doing. Clean break Max, please maybe someday you will understand why I have to do this. I will find a lawyer to get the divorce going so that you don't have too; well I know that you never would. If you need to contact me, it will have to be thru him. But you won't be hearing back from me. There is not just one person to blame for this; it's just as much you as it was me. Maybe I wasn't the wife that I should have been, but you weren't the husband that you should have been either I guess that I have found the right words, there is only one way to say it.  
  
Goodbye, Anna  
  
Anna finished writing the letter and laid her head back on the pillow. She was tired, more tired than she had been in a long time. She was emotionally drained from all of this, and to think that this was just the start of what was going to be a very long road. 


	9. Closing Doors

A/N: Sorry for how long the update has taken me, life has it's way of running away from you but I hope that I can finish this one soon, I hate having unfinished fan fictions running around, please read and review, input negative or positive is always appreciated.  
  
Closing Doors  
  
Carter was just getting ready to get off his shift and up to see Anna once again. It seemed as if that was what he had done every night after he got off work since she had been admitted almost a week ago. She would be ready to go home soon. Abby seemed to be taking the time that Carter had been spending keeping Anna company better than he thought she would have. With them both working in the ER, it seemed as if they had less and less time for each other. The time that he had been spending with Anna had eaten into that time even more.  
  
Carter took off his lab coat and tucked it in his locker before leaning his head against the cold metal. He was running out of time to figure out where to send Anna when she was discharged. He knew he could not keep her here forever in the safety of the hospital.  
  
"Hey there stranger," Abby said as she walked into the lounge filling up her coffee cup looking at him a minute.  
  
Carter lifted up his head, "hey Abs."  
  
"Lost in thought there?" She asked softly.  
  
"You could say that." Carter said, "Just preoccupied, I have a lot on my mind. Sorry about everything, you have been really understanding about all of this Abby."  
  
"There's really not all that much to be understanding about Carter." Abby said still looking at him, unable to take her eyes off her boyfriend standing there looking so worried, "she's your friend Carter, it's really touching to see how much you really care about people."  
  
Carter sighed now softly as he looked into her eyes from across the room. He took a few steps across the lounge to get to her wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her close to him. "It's not just that, I would hate to see something happen to her when I know that it could be prevented. I hate to see anyone hurt by someone who supposedly loves them."  
  
"I know Carter." Abby said her free arm around his waist now her head resting on his chest. "You are doing the right thing by helping her, there's not much that we can do, but at least Anna is willing to accept your help and see that she's in a bad situation right now."  
  
"That she is but I don't know how much help I am actually going to be right now." Carter said, "I've got to find her someplace where she will be safe and away from Max and I have no idea where I could send her that would be both. Chicago is out, he knows her friends here."  
  
'What about sending her up to stay with Maggie and Eric, granted neither of them is stable but Max doesn't know me and he doesn't know my family." Abby said trying to help him out.  
  
"I wouldn't have anyway to get her a job there in any of the hospitals, and I can't just send her off somewhere after convincing her to leave her husband where she won't know anyone and doesn't have a job."  
  
"That makes sense," Abby said thinking back, "are there any other doctors that you know that might have worked here that she would know but that Max wouldn't know."  
  
"Well she knows Benton, but he and Cleo are still in the Chicago area, and I think it might be better to send her a little further away from Max than Illinois." He was silent for a minute as he thought back on everyone who had ever worked at County.  
  
"What about Carol?" Abby asked, "The nurse that I helped deliver her twins. Didn't she date a doctor from here and move to the coast with him; do you think that she might be able to help out?"  
  
"I hadn't thought about Doug Ross." Carter said thinking now about, "I mean he met Max, but I don't think that it was anymore than that. He shouldn't be that hard to find, I mean how big can the Seattle area be."  
  
"You check it out." Abby said heading for the lounge door, "sorry but I have to get back to work before Weaver has my head."  
  
Carter gave her a soft kiss on her cheek, "have a good shift honey." He called out as he watched her walk out the lounge. Carter thought and wondered how he would find Doug. He did not know the Seattle area that well but he walked out and grabbed a computer that was hooked to the internet. He started a search in the greater Seattle area for Dr. Doug Ross; it took him about a half hour before he found anything. He got a general idea of where he was before finding online yellow pages for the area and found a phone number for Doug. He walked out into the ambulance bay to place the call on his cell phone. He dialed the number and waited for Doug to pick up the phone.  
  
"Doug Ross." Doug said as he answered his cell phone.  
  
"Hey Doug, its John Carter," Carter said when he heard Doug answer the phone.  
  
"Hey Carter long time since I've heard from you, what's up?" Doug replied.  
  
"Nothing much, well everything I need to ask you a big favor, I mean a really big favor." Carter answered, "And if you have to say no you have to say no."  
  
Doug was quiet for a second, "what is it Carter?"  
  
"Do you remember Anna Del Amico?" Carter asked him.  
  
"Yeah she was the over achiever that worked in the ER, a pediatrician who was working on becoming double boarded did a summer rotation at county a few years ago." Doug remembered whom he was talking about, "blonde, her boyfriend did the feasibility study for the peds ER there."  
  
"That's Anna," Carter said almost laughing at how Doug remembered her.  
  
"So what about her Carter?" Doug asked.  
  
"I need your help to get her to a safe place." Carter remembered how Doug felt about any one being abused, "her husband is beating her up."  
  
"I'll do what I can Carter, is she willing to relocate?" Doug asked him.  
  
"As far as I can tell she is." Carter said, "She's worried about him coming after her if she stays anywhere over here. Seattle was the next best thing that I could think of where I might know anyone. I need someone who can maybe get her a job and a safe place to stay until I can get her an apartment and up on her feet again. I didn't want to send her someplace where I didn't have anyone to keep and eye on her or where she wouldn't know anyone."  
  
"I can try to see what I can find for her here." Doug said, "I know a few people who are looking for doctors, she's a good doctor, she'll be safe here, I can help get her settled and into a new life here with out that husband of hers."  
  
"Thanks Doug." Carter answered, "I'll talk to her here in a little bit she's still in County right now, she was pretty banged up in a car accident and is recovering here."  
  
"Not a problem Carter," Doug said, "I'll talk to you when you are ready to send her out here, but I'll make sure that someone here can take her so that she will have some work."  
  
"Later Doug," Carter hung up the phone with that and headed up to visit with Anna now that he was off work. At least Carter had a place for her to go, to stay and possibly somewhere to work. Anna needed a fresh start with out having to worry about Max finding her. Carter knew that Seattle would provide just that for her. Carter took the elevator up to see Anna, hidden away in the hospital. He knocked on her door before going in.  
  
"Come in." Anna called out as she tried to pull herself up a little further in the bed. It was getting easier for her to move now but she was still sore and the physical therapy people were working her to death now that she was mobile.  
  
"Hey there," Carter said as he walked into the room.  
  
"Hey yourself John," Anna said giving him a small smile, "are you here to tell me that I am free and that I can leave this joint?"  
  
"Biting at the bullet already to get out of here?" Carter asked her.  
  
"A little, you know doctors make the worst patients, and I am about ready to strangle the physical therapy people they are working me to death. I know it's for my own good but really, they are pushing me." Anna said giving Carter a small smile.  
  
"Well yeah it is for your own good, and it will help to get you out of here." Carter said pulling a chair up beside her bed sitting down so that he could talk to her.  
  
Anna sensed the change in Carter's demeanor and mood, "what is it Carter?"  
  
"We need to talk here for a minute," he said looking more at the floor than at Anna now, although he was not sure why right now he could not look at her. She was still the same person that he had become friends with all those years ago.  
  
Anna looked at him now a little puzzled and a little worried, "what is Max in the hospital, did he find out I haven't left yet?"  
  
"No, oh no Anna honey I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you." Carter had watched her tense of thinking that she had been discovered. He could not imagine living his life in fear of someone who at one time loved him. "I found a safe place for you to go, someone to help you get back up on your feet, get your life back."  
  
"When you say it like that, you make it sound like my whole life has been horrible." Anna now played with the blanket on her bed, "Go on, Carter where am I being banished to, Alaska, a ranger station in the middle of Yellowstone National Park?"  
  
"Anna, you are not being banished anywhere." Carter said softly as he reached out taking her hand into his, "you need to be safe; you need to be away from Max, you are still that beautiful stubborn woman, one who wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind, or to let people know where you stood. You are a brilliant doctor who is full of life and talent." Carter was trying to get her small smile to come back again, "but staying here isn't good for you. Do you remember Doug Ross?"  
  
Anna thought back for a minute, "Yeah I think I do, who could forget an arrogant, ER cowboy, do what I want to do and bend the rules every chance I can get doctor like that. Not to mention he was pretty good looking."  
  
Carter had to laugh and shake his head a little, "you both have odd ways of remember the other, but Doug is living in Seattle right now and said that he would be more than happy to help get you settled in there after we get you out of here. However, I am not going to send you somewhere if you are not willing to go. You need to want to do this for you Anna, not because we are forcing you or telling you, you have to go."  
  
It took Anna a minute to pull herself together so that she could form words once more, "no Carter you are not forcing me to go, I'm going because I know it's what I need to do." She sighed, "Staying with Max isn't an option right now. If you think that I will be safe there, and Doug doesn't mind having me, I'll go and it's because I want to not because you are telling me that I have to go."  
  
Carter leaned back again smiling softly at her, "good, I'm glad to here that. Well get you on the road to having the life that a woman who is as beautiful and talented as you deserves Anna." He said softly now. He could not believe that anyone could have ever raised a hand against some like her, yet he did not know how she could have allowed it to go on as long as it did. 


	10. Girl Talk

_A/N: A few days have passed since the last chapter, but you should be able to still follow it easily, so with out further ado, please read and review._

**GIRL TALK:**

Anna had been discharged from the hospital and was no staying at Carter's place until they could get a flight to Seattle.  Carter said that she should be flying to the coast tomorrow around 8 am. She was both nervous and excited at the same time.  She was leaving one life behind to start another, she'd never seen her family again, which broke her heart, but she knew that it was better than having Max kill her.  If that happened she'd never seen them again anyway and all that Carter had done for her would have been for not.

Abby came down the stairs, she was taking Anna shopping this morning to get her some clothes to take to Seattle since she had nothing of her own now. "You ready to get out of here and go do some damage on Carter's credit card." Abby said smiling at Anna.

"That does sound like fun. You and Carter don't have to do all of this for me." Anna said feeling a bit guilty that Carter was doing all of this for her.

"Nonsense," Abby said still smiling, "Carter wants to do this.  We can't send you to Doug with nothing but the clothes on you back and expect you to either sink or swim on your own.  It's okay trust me let him do this cause I don't want to have to deal with a cranky Carter."

"Okay, okay," Anna said laughing, "I couldn't leave you with a cranky Carter.  Especially after everything that you have both done for me."

"Good," Abby said as they headed out the front door and for the stores.  "Let's get you some clothes, you're a doctor and we might as well have you dressed like one again.  You look like you're a gap girl."

"Yeah I am." Anna said smiling at her, "well I can't say that I have always been a gap girl but it's what I've worn ever since I started practicing, comfortable yet stylish."

Abby climbed into the jeep, "all right then, let's go find you some clothes."  Abby burned a little rubber as they tore out of the mansion parking strip.

They spent the day looking at different clothes and picking stuff out for Anna to have, a couple of suitcases to shove everything in to get it to Seattle.  Abby had a good time spending the day with her, she could see why Carter liked her.  She was friendly and open with those she was around, but Abby could also see why she was a good doctor too.  Anna was a very compassionate and caring person about those who were around her.  Careful not to step on toes, but not afraid to say what was on her mind.

They now sat crossed legged in front of the fire, Abby with a bottle of water in her hand and Anna with a beer bottle in hers. Pizza box open, the two women happily munching away, and giggling between themselves.

"I first met Carter 6 years ago when I came to Chicago out of the blue to do a summer ER elective.  He was so cute and naive back then, a good doctor in the making." Anna laughed a little. "Did you know that he's terrified of cockroaches?"

"Cockroaches, Carter is scared of bugs?" Abby laughed now looking at her.

Anna took a drink from the beer bottle trying not to spit it out as she laughed, nodding her head, "Oh yeah, you should have seen the look on his face. I wasn't making much and I was living in this really bad apartment building, they were everywhere and one crawled up the cabinet, I just grabbed a newspaper and killed it, but," she was laughing pretty hard now, "Carter had this look of total terror on it."

"Oh god," Abby was rolling now too, just picturing that one.

"But we had some good times too." She said, "Although nothing can top that one.  You know Carter and I have been nothing more than friends. I think that he had a tiny crush on me when I was here, but I had just broken up with Max for the umpteenth time and wasn't ready for another relationship.  Well, that was until Max came back again and we decided to give it another go around. He was quite the charmer, who always knew how to get to my heart no matter how hard I tried to protect if from him."

"I know all about that." Abby said as she tried to curb her laughter now, "I was married before, Richard and I had a love to hate relationship.  It was doomed from the start, and his girlfriends didn't help any."

"I'm sorry." Anna said before taking another drink from her beer bottle, "bad marriages are one more thing that we have in common I guess."

"That we do, so tell me some more about Carter.  I didn't meet him until about a year after you had left for Philadelphia."

"Well I helped Carter detox his cousin Chase." She said, "I had experience with doing that, with Max.  I felt so bad when I pulled him in when Chase came in OD'd on some nasty heroin, in full cardiac arrest.  But we got him back, Chase was never the same after that.  I did some stuff at County that I have not done since and stuff that we would have never done at CHOP.  There was a runaway that Doug was taking care of, who left the hospital and I went with him to chase her down." Anna started to laugh again, "we were in this really bad part of town and Doug," Anna laughed harder now, "he turned on his car alarm and I remember looking at him wondering what the hell he was doing cause there was no way that his car alarm was going to stop someone from stealing that jeep."

Abby was laughing now right along with her, "Doug left before I got the chance to meet him, but I did get the chance to help deliver his fiancé's twin girls before she left to join him in Seattle.  Those two were so meant to be together."

"Doug was a character, my first day there," Anna said, "he was intimidated by me and passed me off to another doctor.  We got along but not with out several bumps in the road.  He was good with kids and all but, he was one who liked to break the rules.  We butted heads several time over patient care."

"Sounds like someone that really cared about kids." Abby said, "but someday I might actually get to meet him."

Anna was silent now as she munched on the pizza until she was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of someone knocking on the door, "Abby were you expecting someone?" Anna said as fear of being found filled her body.

"No, not that I know of," Abby said as she got up from her place on the floor.  Abby watched as Anna uncrossed her legs and stood up as well.  She could tell that Anna was getting scared if she wasn't already there. "It's okay Anna nothing is going to happen to you."  Abby kept her head clear and calm, "go upstairs and into any bedroom," she peaked out the curtain.

Anna was moving as Abby talked to her and she about died when she watched Abby pull the curtain back just enough to see who was out there.  "Max." She gasped terror now gripping her full strength.

"Go upstairs Anna, now." Abby said putting a little more force behind her voice. "Don't come back out until I come and get you, go now go." Abby was worried about what he was doing here.  How he might have come to know she was hiding his wife in their home.  Abby waited and watched Anna run up the stairs to find a safe place to hide.

Anna did not stop until she was as far from the door as she could get hidden away back in a closet, she pulled the door shut and moved to the very back of the closet.  She pulled her knees up to her chest and said a silent prayer that he would not find her.  She was so close to getting away and now everything was being threatened.  If he could find her here, he could find her anywhere that she went.  She would be living the rest of her life in fear.

Abby stood at the bottom of the stairs as she waited to see he would just go away, but the knocking continued. She waved everyone away from the door, not wanting anyone to open it right now. There was a man who was hell bent on getting his wife back on the other side and Abby didn't want to get Anna into any danger if he managed to get someone to open the door he could get inside the house and Abby wouldn't be able to stop him from getting to Anna then.

Abby walked over to the door not opening it, "I don't know who you are but you need to leave right now."

"I want to see my wife." He yelled back at her, "I know she's here."

"I don't know who you are talking about, but I think you had better leave.  You are on private property and you are trespassing," Abby called out, "I won't hesitate to call the police if you don't get off my front porch."

"You go right ahead my wife is in there and I am not leaving until I get to see her and talk to her." Max yelled back defiantly.

Abby lied now, "I don't know your wife.  I have no idea who you are talking about so I suggest you leave."

Max continued to bang on the door, "Anna get your ass down here."

"There's no one here by that name." Abby called out as she flipped open her cell phone and dialed 9-1-1.  She was not going to take any chances that he could get inside and he was determined not to leave.  Abby spoke quickly to the 9-1-1 operator letting her know that there was a man at her house that refused to leave and that they were in danger, that he was intent on taking one of the people in her house against her will.  She hung up the phone and tried to keep Max at the front door so that he would not wander around and find another door to come into the house thru.

"Anna come on get out here. I'm not leaving until you talk to me." Max yelled again.

"Anna's not here, Max get that thru your head." Abby called out again.

"The hell she's not." Max was yelling louder now, "I saw her with you earlier today, I want to talk to my wife damn it."

"I don't know what you think you saw, but it wasn't what you thought you did.  She's not here, I don't know Anna and I don't know you, so why don't you just get back in your car and leave me alone."

Max just stood there now waiting with his arms crossed over his chest. Abby wondered how long it was going to take the cops to get there.  He was making her nervous and she was sure that wherever Anna was hiding she was probably scared to death by now with all this noise and yelling coming from the front door.

Abby watched Max walk from the front door back to his car.  She could not take her eyes off him.  She about died when she watched him pull a gun from his car.  Abby knew her and Anna were in trouble, deep trouble now.  Abby felt the fear creeping into her body.  She had to get Anna out of the house and away from Max but she did not know how she could do that.  She backed away from the door a few steps and hit Carter's number on her speed dial, "damn it Carter pick up." Abby said as she listened to it ring.

"John Carter." He said answering the phone.

"Carter, Max is here." Abby said not keeping the panic from her voice. "He's at the front door now with a gun.  She's hidden," Abby did not want to say names in case Max could hear her.

"Abby you guys have to get out of the house.  Get Anna and you out of the house, now." Carter was worried now as he started to pace.

Abby took a couple more steps back from the door as she heard him outside again. "Carter where, how do I get out with out him seeing me?"

"Go out thru the garage.  Take the keys to any of the cars and you drive, Abby do you hear me you grab a car and you drive as fast as you can and don't stop until you get in front of a police station." Carter wished now that he hadn't left them alone today.

"I hear you." Abby said.  She looked around not sure where Anna had hidden herself at, then the gun sounded.  She felt a hot sensation burning thru her arm now where the bullet had torn thru her skin.

"Abby, Abby!" Carter yelled into the phone unsure of what he had just heard.

"Son of a bitch." Abby said biting her lip, "Carter I got to go." She said pulling herself together as she slammed the phone shut.  Her arm was killing her now as she tried to put pressure on it. She looked at the door again; if he fired that gun, there was nothing that was going to keep him outside. Anna was upstairs and Abby needed to keep him from her. 

"Anna I'm coming in." Abby heard Max call out.  "If you won't come to me I am coming to you."

'Anna', where was she hiding Abby needed to get them out of the house now and fast cause she had no idea where Anna was hiding or even now how to get to her before Max got to them.  She looked up to see Anna standing at the top of the stairs now, she bolted to Abby's side seeing that her crazed husband had shot her best's friends girlfriend.

"Abby," Anna said in a low voice, "you okay?" Anna took a good look at Abby's arm.

"Yeah it just grazed me; we have to get you out of here before he comes in." Abby said looking at Anna there was fear in her eyes.

"Don't worry." Anna was amazingly calm right now. "We'll get out of here."

Abby nodded at Anna not sure, if they really could make it. "Let's go."

Anna got ready to run with Abby as the gun went off again. They had just started for the garage as they heard the report from the gun.  Out of habit, they both went down to the floor, neither of them knowing if the other one was hit.  Abby tried to scramble back to her feet now as she heard sirens in the yard she pulled on Anna now who was not moving. "Come on Anna, come on." She pulled again. She pulled Anna's lifeless body towards the kitchen so that they could get out into the garage.  She had to stop when she got to the kitchen hiding them around the bar, she could see Max almost in the house when he stopped and turned and ran for his car hearing the cops taking off like a bat out of hell from the vicinity.  Abby breathed a small sigh of relieve seeing him leave but her mind never left the person she was with.

Carter paced for a few more minutes after the line went dead and he could not hear Abby's voice just the report of the gun going off.  He told Kerry what had happened and then took off for the mansion not sure if they were both still alive.


	11. Beginning of the End

_A/N: Okay been able to really work on this and I am not suffering from writer's block currently so here's the next chapter of Listen to your dreams. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time, read, and reviewed, love to know what you all think. Keep the reviews coming please, that way I know what you think and really it does influence where the story will go._

**The beginning of the end**

Carter pulled up in front of the mansion, worried about the two women inside. There were cars everywhere mostly police vehicles, hopefully nothing had happened to them. He got out of the car and explained to the officers whom he was and why he was there as they let him closer to the house.

Abby had stayed hidden in the kitchen with Anna. She had heard the car pull away, "Anna," She said gently shaking the woman next to her, "Anna, come on open your eyes for me." She called again, getting no response from her. "Anna!" She shook her a little harder and called a lot louder. When Anna did not move that time, Abby started to check her over to see if where she had been hurt. She checked her over looking almost frantically when she found the entrance wound. It was near the base of her neck, she must have been hit when they dove for the floor. Abby got up from their hiding space running for the door.

"I need help," Abby called as she ran, "I got a woman down, I have a woman down."

Carter heard Abby as he caught a glimpse of her running from the house. When the words that she was screaming sank in, he ran towards the house, "get the medics in here now." Carter ran toward the house, "where is she Anna, where is she?"

"In here." Abby said grabbing Carter, "single gun shot wound." She pulled Carter along towards where she and Anna had been hiding in the kitchen. She slid to her knees next to Anna.

"Anna," Carter said looking her over, "Anna can you hear me, squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

Anna could hear voices in the background someone who sounded like Carter but she could not get her eyes to open. Her shoulder burned, sharp pain shooting thru her body, she remembered hearing the gun go off, and so she made the natural assumption that he must have hit her. She tried again to force her eyes open looking at Carter

"I can't, I can't feel my hand." She said softly when she got oriented.

"You are going to be okay Anna." Carter said as he picked her up off the kitchen floor and headed out side to find the paramedics, "I'm going to take good care of you."

Abby followed them out towards the ambulance that had just pulled up. "Go with her Carter I will drive and meet you at County."

Carter nodded at Abby as he got Anna onto a gurney and into the back of an ambulance. The doctor inside him started to take over and he tried not to think that it was his friend laying there on the gurney again. This time from a gunshot, her husband had inflicted up her.

Anna laid there in pain, "John," she said softly now barely being able to talk and she was having a hard time staying awake, "it hurts."

"I know Anna," He said, "we'll be to County soon and we can give you something there." He knew that this was not good since she could not feel her hand and the blood loss that she was suffering from was extensive. He helped the medic's pack the wound to slow the bleeding and opened the IV's that they had in her wide open to keep the volume up as best the could in route to County. He needed to get her out of Chicago and soon, he could not risk Max coming back again to finish the job that he had started. Carter had promised Anna that he would keep her safe and that was what he intended to do.

Carter kept a close eye on her as they sped towards County. He knew that Abby was behind them following in the jeep although she probably was not driving as fast as they were. He watched the monitors that were hooked up to her, almost saying a silent prayer for Anna.

"John was Abby alright, her arm, it wasn't serious was it?" Anna asked pulling the oxygen mask away from her face with her left hand. "Max didn't hurt her did he?"

"I don't know Anna, she appeared to be okay when I saw her," In all the commotion Carter had not even noticed that Abby had been hurt. He would have to look her over really well when he got Anna taken care of. "I'm sure she's fine Anna. Put the mask back on please." Carter said as he pulled her hand away from it settling it back over her nose and mouth.

Carter watched Anna's eyes fluttering open and shut repeatedly. He knew she was losing the battle to stay awake and there with him, "hold on Anna we'll be there in a few minutes, just hold on and stay with me."

She glanced over at him trying to stay away but it was getting harder and harder by the moment she was so tired and getting cold. She still could not feel her arm and Anna knew that was a bad thing. "Carter I'm cold. I'm getting really cold."

Carter knew now that she was fading faster, "hold on Anna we'll get you warmed up soon." He said reaching over to double check and make sure those IV's were wide open. He took one of the bags and started to squeeze it in faster by hand, before checking the bleeding from her shoulder, which had slowed a little but not enough. He needed to get her to a surgeon quickly. "Call County tell them to have a surgeon in the ER, she needs red lined to the OR." Carter said to the medic sitting near him, "she's losing volume faster than we can get it into her."

Anna heard him and knew what was going on now, why she was so cold, she was slowly bleeding out and it would not be long before there was not enough blood in her body to carry oxygen to her brain. She was simply was going to fall asleep soon and all she could do was hope that she would wake up again.

Carter felt the ambulance pull up into the bay and he did not waste any time getting out and meeting the other doctors and the doors, "35 year old female, single gun shot would to the shoulder there's an entrance and exit wound." Carter then rattled off her vitals as the rolled into trauma one. Carter snapped on gloves as he had more to work with now than what was in the back of the rig. It did not take long for them to get her stabilized enough to take up so that vascular could repair the vessel damage done by the bullet. Carter walked with the gurney to the elevator.

"I'll see you in a little bit okay Anna." He said to her as they pulled her into the elevator. Anna's eyes were barely open now. Carter headed off to try to find Abby and make sure that she was all right.

Abby came running into the ER, "Carter where is she how's Anna is she okay?"

Carter grabbed her, "she's fine are you okay? Anna said that you were hit too?" Carter instinctively started to look her over.

"Yeah I'm okay." She said looking at him, "I was just grazed, nothing more than a scratch." She said showing him his arm.

Carter looked it over as he pulled her into an exam room to clean up her arm. "Anna's going to be fine, they took her up, it tore thru some vessels and there's pretty severe blood loss but I am sure that they will get her right as rain here soon. When she gets out I have to find a way to get her to Seattle sooner rather than later"

"Well get her there Carter," Abby said looking at him now, "all she has to do is make it thru surgery."

"Yeah," Carter said softly, "she's a fighter I know she'll make it, she has to make it. Anna has come too far to give up now." He went silent now as he patched Abby up. His mind wandering to his friend up in the OR, and Carter was hoping against all the odds that she would pull thru this nightmare.


	12. Calmer Weather

_A/N: Again thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed, mean a lot to me to hear that people really do like the story and gives me motivation to keep writing it. _

**Calmer weather**

There was something about this trip to Chicago that had been nothing but bad luck since Anna had arrived. She slowly opened her eyes to find herself once again in the SICU at County general. This time however, she knew she was there because her husband and attempted to carry out his threat and kill her. She could not help but wonder if she was ever really going to be safe. She felt like she was stuck in that movie enough, where the woman tried to escape her husband and did not make it until she killed him. However, there was no way that Anna would have the strength or the willpower to hurt Max. Inside she was a doctor and bent on saving lives not taking them. She would probably be the one to shoot him and to patch him back up.

Her shoulder hurt now, not as bad as it had when she first remembered getting there but sore nonetheless. She reached up and pushed the hair from her face as she tried to get a better grip on her surroundings. The sterile room with a few other patients scattered about, people in various states of waking up from surgeries that they all for one reason or another needed to have. Carter said that he would see her soon and she knew that he was probably with Abby right now. Max had tried to kill them both. She did not know if she could stay around Carter right now knowing that she was putting both he and Abby in danger. Seattle seemed like it would be a safe place to go, but thru the grapevine she had heard that Doug now had kids and the thought of putting someone else's family in danger did not sit well in her stomach.

"Hey you're awake," Anna heard a familiar voice say to her. She turned her head to see both Abby and Carter there now.

"Yeah I think I am," She replied softly now, as she looked at Abby, "are you okay?" Putting other people before herself was something that Anna just did out of instinct rather than anything else, especially when she knew she was the reason that person had been hurt.

"Yeah I'm fine just a scratch." Abby said back, she looked at Anna now too, concern for the woman showing in her eyes. "You gave me a bit of a scare there, glad to see those eyes of yours open right now."

"Sorry Abby," Anna said looking away now more at the ceiling than anything, "I should have known that he would find me, and that you weren't safe around me. I shouldn't have let my guard down."

"Don't blame yourself for this one." Abby said now, "it's okay you didn't know he was going to do that."

"I knew." Anna responded, "He said he would and it was just a matter of time before he tried. It is really just a matter of time before he tries again and we might not be so lucky to get away alive again. I can't ask you guys to keep putting your necks out on the line when I know that you could get hurt or even killed because of me and my maniac husband."

Carter stepped forward now, as he gently touched her hand, "Anna, you are my friend, you will always be my friend, we will do what we need to do to get you out of Chicago right now in one piece."

"Carter, John," Anna started to speak again after a moment of silence, "I appreciate it, I really do, everything that you have done for me, no one could ask for more. However, it is just too much for me to ask you to keep putting yourself in danger just to keep me safe. You two are the most kind, caring, compassionate people I know. You both are real friends that anyone would be happy to have but this is not a game anymore. This time, Max is playing with fire this time and he is intent on winning, at any cost."

"Anna we are not going to walk away from you when you need your friends the most." Abby said she could swear there was a hint of shock on Carter's face when she spoke up before he did. "You can't do this alone and we are not going to let you. Carter and I will do whatever we can to help you get to somewhere safe. Max can try all he wants but we won't give up until we get you to that safe place."

Anna did not know what to say now; she was almost floored that these two would be willing to go so far for a friend, a friend that they hadn't seen in a long time. And it wasn't like Anna and Abby were close friends they had only known each other for a little while, the only connection that they had to each other was Carter right now. Anna had known him for a long time and Abby had been with him for a few years now.

"Abby's right Anna," he said speaking up now. "We will help you that is the least that I can do. I promised that I would get you thru this and not let anything happen to you, well I'm still going to do that."

Anna sighed now, "thank you, thank you both." Was all that she could think to say, "You will never know how much I appreciate this. You have both been wonderful to me and I mean it."

Carter just patted her hand now, "I know you do Anna." He said smiling at her, "you'll be up on your feet and practicing medicine in a brand new city with new friends and a new shot at life here before you know it. You will be safe there. Doug will help get you on your feet and I am sure that is the last place that he will look for you there. I doubt Max remembers Doug that much they didn't speak a lot and it's not like you spent a lot of time around Doug back then."

"I know but I don't even know what Max is fully capable of." She said now with a sad look crossing her face, "I never thought that he would actually try and kill me. I never thought that the person I loved who swore he loved me to would do something like this." She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. Anna was not sure if it was the fact that he had tried to kill her, kill her friends, or a combination of both, but this really hurt this time, more than he had ever hurt her before.

Abby could see how upset she was now, "Anna it is going to be okay. We will get this all worked out again. I know it hurt honey." She lowered her voice as she sat down on the edge of the bed, "walking away from the life that you have worked so hard to build to start over again can be both scary and painful but I know you can do it. You are a very strong woman, it is just going to take some time for you to get back on your feet and you won't be alone."

"I know." Anna said keeping her voice soft and quiet now. "It is scary and to be honest I don't know if I want to put Doug and his family in any danger. There is always that chance that Max could still find me even if I move all the way to the coast. Doctor's are not that hard to find and if he really wanted to, I am sure that he could still find a way to get to me. He seems so determined to end this the way that he wants it to end."

"Anna you have to not think about that." Abby told her, "you need to think positive that this is a step in the right direction for you that it will all work out in the end you have to have some faith that what we are doing will work. Doug knows the risks that he is taking. He knows about men like Max and if he thought that, there was any chance that something could happen he would not have offered to help you. He is doing this cause he wants to no other reason."

"I know but there are so many what ifs right now, what if Max does find me, what if this doesn't work, what if after all of this I somehow end up dead anyway no matter what we do." She did not hold the tears back now, "I mean look at how close he came this time."

Carter gave Abby a sympathetic look knowing that this was hard on all of them, but especially hard on Anna right now. She was the one who was going to have to give everything up not them. She was faced with leaving her home, her friends and most of all her close-knit family. He pulled Anna into a very soft and gently hug, giving her a shoulder to cry on yet being fully aware of her injuries. "It is going to be okay. I can't promise you that Max won't try anything else, that's out of my hands but just know that you have friends that will do anything they can to help keep you safe."

Anna cried on his shoulder for a minute before she was able to say anything. "Thank you John, Abby it means a lot to me." She said between sniffles now.

"Don't mention it Anna." Abby said trying to reassure her that everything that they were doing they were doing because they wanted to not because they had too.

"She's right you know." Carter said softly to her, "you are my friend Anna and I am more than happy and willing to go that extra mile for the people I care about and who mean something to me. Granted we might not be more than friends, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about you and your well being."

Anna closed her eyes feeling sleepy again from the medication and the pain in her arm. Her tears slowed down and her breathing became steadier as she drifted off to sleep again.

Carter put his fingers to his lips when he felt her nod off in his hug. He gently laid her back down on the bed pulling the covers up over her tired and worn out body. He put his arm around Abby backing them slowly up from the bed. When he had gotten them a few feet away as so that not to wake her, he kissed the top of Abby's head, "thank you for everything Abby."

"I was just doing what I could honey." Abby said softly, "She's a good person and doesn't deserve to have this happening to her. But you are right we need to get her away from here as soon as we can. She's not safe here in Chicago and we need to get her to Doug as soon."

"I know baby." Carter said hugging onto Abby as they made their way towards the exit to the hospital, "I don't think she's even safe here right now. It would be too easy for Max to find her. Not that he would be stupid enough to try anything when they are looking for him. That might be our break to get her away. He might go into hiding for a little bit here until he thinks it's safe for him to make his next move."

"Carter you make this sound like we are in some action movie." Abby said looking at him funny, "but I know we need to get her out of here soon. Just let me know what I need to do to help and I will do it."

"We'll get it figured out." Carter said as they now headed out into the warm Chicago weather. "We'll get it all together." He opened up the jeep, letting her inside, "we just need Anna to heal from this and then we can figure out where to go from here."


	13. You only see that in the movies

_A/N: This story is just taking off and going places now that I didn't envision that it would when I started it so long ago, thanks again to everyone who has read and reviewed. I appreciate it greatly. Also I am so sorry if there are not skywalks (aka sky bridges) in Chicago, I have never been there._

**You only see that in the movies.**

Anna had been hospitalized for a couple of days for the injury to her shoulder to start to heal. She was getting antsy to get out of there, more so out of Chicago. It was not that she did not like Chicago or being able to visit with Carter and Abby but that she was getting nervous that Max might try something and she did not want to be around long enough for him to get the notion to try something again. She dressed herself this time negotiating her sore shoulder into the clothes that Abby had brought by for her. Carter was going to accompany her to Seattle and get her settled in with Doug before heading back to Chicago.

"Hey, you ready to get out of here?"

Anna looked up to see Carter starting to walk into her room, "oh more than you know. Not that I am in a hurry to leave you and Abby's company but more to put some distance between me and Max."

"I can understand, things have been pretty quiet lately." Carter said walking over to her, "they give you your walking papers?"

"Yeah," Anna said pointing to a few yellow papers sitting on the tray table in front of her, "all signed discharged and my medications were filled for me so that we would not have to do it later."

"Well someone was thinking ahead for us." Carter said pulling the wheelchair over to her. "Now if I can just sneak you out of here with out anyone seeing us that we don't want to everything will be okay."

Anna let out a nervous laugh, "you don't think that he would have someone watching the hospital waiting for us to leave do you, I mean come on that is something that you only see in the movies."

"You never know." Carter said softly, "but that's why I insisted that we waited until it was dark out. Make it a little harder for them to see us and that we are not taking my car or the EL. I had them call us a cab from downstairs when I got here that is going to meet us out front rather than at the bay."

"You seem to think of everything." She said giving him a small smile, "well then I guess we are headed for Seattle here pretty quick."

"That my dear we are." Carter said as he started to push her out of the hospital.

"Why do they insist that I ride in this thing, I am well enough to walk out of here on my own freewill?" Anna half asked looking up at him.

"Oh you know the rules as well as anyone else, if not better. They don't want you to slip and fall and have to stay even longer with them." Carter laughed, "not that you want to stay here any longer, most of the staff knows you by name and by the fact that you were once an ER resident downstairs so long ago."

"I know don't remind me of living in that roach invested apartment building with one shower that I have to fight to get into." She said giving him a little laugh, "with the roach that freaked you out, especially when I killed it. The look on your face that day Carter was priceless."

"Glad that's what you remember most about your County experience." He said as the worked their way down to the main level of the hospital. "Some of us haven't figured out how to leave this place yet, not that I would want to, after all this time it has seemed to have grown on me. Take the good and the bad that happens here and I don't think that I wouldn't want to work anywhere else now."

"Well I never thought that I would have to leave CHOP after getting back there." She said softly now, "I loved that hospital and working with all the kids. You think that Doug can find me a good job working with kids. I mean I enjoy working in an ER and all, but I really do love kids."

"I'm sure he'll find you something that you will love doing Anna." Carter said as he glanced around outside the hospital looking for something but he was not sure what. "Doug remembered you as an overachiever in the ER. I am pretty sure that he remembers that you are a well trained excellent pediatrician with a background in Emergency Medicine and knowing Doug he could sell you with the best of them."

"Ha," she laughed, "he thought I was an overachiever. Well I remember him as a hotshot ER want to be cowboy breaking every rule he could ever come across and then some. He probably hasn't changed much since then."

"Oh you might be surprised." Carter said as he helped her out of the chair and snuck them out the entrance watching over his shoulder for any possible sign of Max. 'Anna you see anything that might resemble Max?"

Anna looked around quickly not wanting anyone to get a good glimpse of her, "are we on a secrete ops mission there Carter, cause I don't see him."

"Well we might just be doing that." Carter said softly. "I don't want to take any risks we are too close to getting you out of here for something to go wrong."

"Well since I've gotten here," She said with a strong hint of sarcasm, "if it could go wrong it has."

Anna let Carter open the door to the cab and she slid over in the seat, still looking over her shoulder to see if she could see anything when a black SUV caught her attention. She watched it for a minute; something looked almost familiar about it, but could not put her finger on it.

Carter noticed that she was focused on a SUV, "Anna what it is?"

"That car, there's something about that car that I just can't put my finger on. I don't know maybe I have watched too much TV the last few days and that's what it is." She said, "but there's something not right with it."

They watched it as the cab pulled out into the street and slowly but surely, the SUV started to follow them. Anna's heartbeat a little faster now; she had a good idea of who was driving the vehicle that was almost eerily following them thru the streets of Chicago. If Carter had been driving, it probably would have been a lot easier for them to loose him. She sat back against the back of the seat knowing that right now there was not much that they could do about it.

She sat in silence for a few minutes just watching Carter think, she did not want to say anything that might break his concentration or his formulation of their plan. "John, you have any ideas as to what we are going to do?"

"No not really." Carter said looking over at her, "I was trying to come up with something but I have no idea."

Anna thought about it for a minute. "We need to stop someplace with a lot of people and I mean a lot of people. We can slip inside one side of the building and out the one on the opposite side. Max might just fall for it sitting wherever he parks thinking that I needed to use the ladies room or that we are having dinner or something. The man might be persistent but he can be denser than a rock sometimes."

"That might just work." Carter said looking at her. "Maybe I should have you be my getaway driver if I ever plan a heist; I think you do watch too much TV." He let out a little laugh nervous with how close the SUV had gotten. He gave a new address to the cab driver as they pulled up in front of a rather large building that Carter knew had several restaurants inside of it.

"Okay come on." He said taking her hand and their bags thrown over his shoulder as they walked at a brisk pace to get inside of it.

Once in Anna turned a little so that she could see where Max parked, instead of parking she watched him start to circle the building. He did not seem to want to pull over almost as if he knew what Anna was thinking.

"Damn it," She said, "he's circling."

"Plan B time I guess." Carter said taking her hand and leading her up a flight of stairs to a skywalk. The watched Max drive under it. Not seeing them leaving the one building and heading for another.

"Okay now who watches too many movies?" Anna said to him as they hurried across to the next building.

"Hey, I watch my fair share, just did not see the need to share that with you." Carter said looking around to make sure that he was still circling the other building.

To both their amazement the car parked and he sat parked where he could see both buildings and the exits. This was starting to get sticky now it was almost as if he was inside the building watching where they were going.

"Does he have someone in here tailing us?" Anna was almost afraid to ask that question feeling she had the answer to it already in her head, "this is a really bad horror movie now. It is like he is reading my mind as to where we are going to go."

"I was getting the same feeling there Anna." Carter said taking her hand and pulling her along a little faster now. "There has to be someway to shake him. He can't follow us everywhere can he?"

"Now's a good time to be asking that question Carter," Anna said shaking her head as the moved along a lot faster now. "I have no idea. I have no idea how far he is willing to go with this."

"I don't know either." Carter said pulling her around a few corners into various parts of the building riding one set of elevators up and coming down a totally different set in hopes of throwing who ever was following them off. They took another sky bridge across to another building but their hearts sank when the SUV followed them over to the other building.

"This is getting to be ridiculous Carter." Anna said as the rounded yet another corner and took another set of elevators followed by yet another entirely different set, down to the street crossing quickly before the light changed and there was any chance that they could be shot at or run over.

"I know Anna." Carter said now almost pulling her along trying to move as fast as they could. "But I know that we can lose him here somehow, some place."

"If you say so Carter," Anna said not letting up the breakneck pace that he was not pulling her at. She was beginning to think that they were never going to loose him. They went into yet another building and up another flight of stairs crossing a second and third sky bridge. "Carter, do you have any idea where we are at anymore?"

"Yeah I have some idea, just bare with me I know where I am heading, I think." He said.

Anna gave him a half glance before looking out the window seeing the SUV now parked across from where they were at once again. "We are going to run ourselves into the ground keeping up this pace and we still have to run thru the airport."

"We'll be okay have a little faith in me." Carter said pulling her into an alcove as a large crowd of people came from the other direction. Carter slipped them into the crowd more towards the middle so that they were harder to see, "pull your hair up under the hat." He instructed her.

Anna did what Carter told her to not wanting to give him any grief right now. Her long blonde hair was soon tucked up under a baseball hat.

"There we will blend in a little more with all the people. Blondes might have more fun, but you can spot them a mile away." He said.

The both watched as the SUV pulled back the way that they had headed before Anna had covered up her hair with the hat. Carter pulled Anna out of the crowd once again hiding in another alcove that was in the building waiting a few minutes as the SUV continued following that crowd that just happened to have another blonde-haired woman in it. They quickly ducked out into another crowd that was going the way that they had just come, Carter hiding Anna more in the middle of it so that there were people on both sides of them. He did not say anything he just led her along until they came to a spot where they could exit the building and Carter hailed the first cab he could get before motioning for Anna to come out of the doorway. She waited for the cab to stop and Carter to have the door open before darting out and in one fluid motion sliding inside.

"Midway," Carter said to the cab driver as they pulled out. Carter looked back over his shoulder; the black SUV that they had spent the last hour trying to outrun and lose was finally lost.

They both leaned back against the seat of the cab smiling at each other right now they were in the clear. They were both being hopeful that it would stay that way until they could get to the airport, checked in with out being spotted and out of the Chicago area with no one knowing where they had gone.


	14. Blue Grey Skies

_A/N: This is my third update today, like I said the story is really flying now that I have direction that I want to go with it, I just hope that my motivation keeps going. As always thanks to those who keep reviewing and keep pushing this story forward._

**Blue Grey Skies**

Anna and Carter made it with few troubles the rest of the way to the airport it seemed as if they had managed to leave Max behind and lost him somewhere in the city. Anna breathed a sigh of relief when they got checked in and headed thru the security, unless for some dumb reason Max had an airline ticket once they were thru security he couldn't get to them. Anna also knew that even if he did there was no way that he was getting up to the concourse or near the boarding gates with a gun. He was not talented enough to get that thru security. Anna hoped that the security at the airport was good enough that someone, mainly Max could not get thru, all the checkpoints that they had put up.

"We made it." She said as they stood now in front of the boarding gate for the United flight from Chicago to Seattle.

"That we did Anna," Carter said smiling as he put his arm around her. "A few more hours and we will be in Seattle and you can leave this behind."

"Yeah I can." She said, "I didn't think it would be this hard. You know I mean leaving Max is one thing but I have to leave my family too, all 7 of my brothers behind, sorry but I am just an overprotective older sister."

"They will be okay with out you for a bit Anna." Carter said trying to reassure her, "you are doing the right thing, and you know you need to do this. What Max was doing to you was wrong. You deserve so much better than what he was doing to you. Anna you are a beautiful, intelligent woman."

She smiled bashfully now at Carter, "you've always thought that." She said softly, "you are so funny Carter," Anna touched his arm not softly, "but I believe you and I thank you for saying it. Abby is a lucky woman to have you."

Carter smiled as he handed her the airline ticket. "Glad you think that." He said laughing a little now, "I feel pretty lucky to have her."

"Well you know what they say," She said laughing.

Carter smiled at her, "what now?"

"Behind every great man is an exceptional woman." She said smiling a little more between her giggles.

"Yeah, sure," Carter said softly hitting her arm, "joke it up now there beautiful cause you're going to be outnumbered when we get to Seattle. It's going to be just Doug and me and you."

"Oh but there's Carol and the girls so see, it's still 4 to 2." She said hitting him back; it almost felt like old times between them right now rather than them trying to flee the area now with out being caught.

"Well okay you got me there." Carter said, "That's our flight they are calling."

"It doesn't seem like we have been here long enough for them to be calling our flight already." She said looking wishfully out the airport window again.

Carter took Anna's hand into his and softly let her towards the boarding gate. "I know and someday you'll get to come back I know you will. It's going to be hard I won't lie to you there but you will get to see your family again Anna."

"I hope you are right." She said looking at the gate. Anna forced herself now to move toward the gate, telling herself that this was the right thing to do. That this was the only the only course of action she had left right now. Granted she could have gone to the police and gotten their help but she did not think that Max would really respect a restraining order. He obviously held no respect for her life if she was not with him.

"I know I am Anna." Carter said softly as he handed the gate agent his ticket and waited for Anna to do the same before leading her down towards the plane. "Hope that you are the kind to get airsick."

Anna laughed, "not that I know of, it hasn't happened yet." She said softly, "Are you telling me that you don't want a traveling companion who has to use the airsick bag in the little seat compartment that a normal person couldn't hit because they are as small as those ones that we are supposed to have people puke in, in the ER?"

"Okay you have a good point there." He said laughing. "I'll make sure that if you ever come into my ER again with gastroenteritis that I make sure you get one of those big basins to barf in." He said as he kept laughing. Carter held out his hand, "our seats ma'am."

"Carter this is first class, aren't we flying coach or something don't we need to be further back in the plane?"

"Not that I know of," Carter said looking at her, "are you telling me you'd rather be back there in those cramped seats with no leg room rather than up here with plenty of leg room nice comfy fluffy seats, a pillow for your head."

"Well uh if you are going to put it that way." She said laughing as she slid inside next to the window. "I think I can handle this." She slipped the seatbelt around her waist pulling it tight, as they had nothing to do but wait for the flight to take off. They were due to land in Seattle in about four and a half hours.

They settled into the flight getting off with out any troubles. Anna closed her eyes settling back into the seat getting comfortable. They might have had trouble getting to the airport with Max but it seemed like there was almost nothing that could go wrong now. Well she probably should not say that while they were cruising at thirty-three thousand feet now. For once in several weeks, Anna actually felt as if she was safe and was not going to be hurt again. Max had done the worst that he could do and now she was flying far away with out a care in the world.


	15. Rain Showers

_A/N: I know that last chapter left off in kind of a strange place but this one will make up for it. Bear with me, because it will pick back up here shortly. _

**Rain showers**

The plane landed in Seattle to one of the many downpours that frequented the Emerald City. It was not that cold here and the rain actually felt good, when it hit Anna's skin. They had grabbed their bags and where now waiting to be picked up. Carter had called Doug and he was going to get them from the airport.

Anna and Carter stood in an alcove now watching the approaching cars for dark blue Jeep that Doug drove. Anna leaned back and watched the people coming and going, watching the flow of the airport traffic.

"Hey guys jump in." A voice called pulling Anna from her thoughts.

Anna looked the direction that the voice had come from, "hey Doug." She said walking towards the jeep and sliding inside followed by Carter.

"Doug thanks for all this." Carter said pulling the door closed as they headed for the freeway.

"No problem, just glad I could help, hey Anna how you holding up?" Doug asked.

"About as well as I can be expected I guess, considering the circumstances." She said softly now looking out the window at the falling rain.

"Understandable." Doug said sympathetically, he could see that she was tired just by looking at her, "the flight was okay?"

"Yeah pretty uneventful thank you." Carter said leaning back against the seat of the jeep. "Are you hungry Anna?"

"A little not too bad," She responded to the question, "more tired than anything."

"Yeah it takes a little getting used to the time change." Doug said, "And the grey weather doesn't help but the sun does shine in Seattle contrary to popular belief."

That got a small laugh from the tired woman sitting in the back of the jeep. Doug could not help but give her one of his famous goofy looks now as he negotiated the heavy Seattle traffic. Even though if was getting to be late night there was still a lot of cars on the freeway.

"I'm sure I will adjust just fine." Anna said looking at the darkness that surrounded the car, all the taillights that were on the road.

"Mariner's game just let out not that long ago. Seattle loves its baseball team." He said, "Although I haven't managed to break myself from being a cubbies fan. Too many years in Chicago I guess, I am still in that transplant phase."

"Doug you have been in Seattle for 4 years, I think you're beyond transplant, you are just a hopeless Chicago nut." Carter said, "Is there anyplace where we could grab her a burger and fries." He glanced in the review mirror at Anna. He lowered his voice so that she would not hear them talking, "she would go for hours with out eating if we don't get it for her. She has been shy about asking for anything. I know she feels guilty about having to have her friends help her out of the jam she is in, but I would help her out in a heartbeat."

"I know you would Carter." Doug said as the kept driving. "There's a place a little closer to the house that we can stop at get her something to eat. The girls are in bed and Carol's waiting up for us right now."

Carter looked at Doug for a minute, "we can talk about it more later," he said glancing back at Anna, "hey you okay back there?"

"Yeah I am fine." She said yawning a little now.

"We'll be to the house in just a few minutes." Doug said watching her yawn. "We've got a place for you and Carter to sleep set up there." The headed up the interstate getting off I-5 at 45th Avenue and turned shortly thereafter onto Sandpoint Way. Doug loved living on the lake. He hit a drive thru on the way and then it did not take long before they pulled into a house just off the lake. "We're home," Doug said as he parked the car in the driveway.

"It's a beautiful home Doug." Anna said as she got out of the jeep taking in the sights the best she could under the darkened sky of Seattle, the rain still softly falling now almost more of a mist than a rain now.

Carter grabbed their bags as they followed Doug inside the house. Anna was getting tired and looked around a little. Carol came into the kitchen when she heard them come in. Carter sat the bags down as he pulled Carol into a hug, "hey there long time no see." He smiled.

"Yeah same here Carter." She said, "Your face is the last one that I thought I would see here in Seattle." She turned to Anna after hugging Carter, "Anna it's nice to see you too, you look like you are about to drop. Here, why don't you sit down?" Carol pulled the chair out from the kitchen table.

"Here have something to eat too, and then we'll get you settled into your room for the night." He was trying to be helpful and polite to her.

"Uh thanks Doug." Anna said as she started to munch on the fries that he had set in front of her.

"Would you like a cup of coffee Anna?" Carol asked as she got one for her and Doug, "what about you Carter?"

"Sure that would be great Carol." Carter said.

"Please Carol." Anna said smiling a little now that she was among friends.

Carol made short work of filling the four cups and heading back to the table. They let Anna eat in almost silence now. "How is Chicago Carter and the County crew?"

"Everyone is pretty well." Carter said, "Susan and Kerry are doing well, and I'm sure that you heard that Romano died a few months ago in an unfortunate helicopter accident."

"Yes we heard about that." Carol said, "they had it on the evening news, the accident that is, but I talked to Elizabeth a few days later and she told us of County's loss."

"Not that he ever liked me, but it was a shame." Doug said, "so Kerry's the Chief now. County must be quiet the place to work now."

"Well it's not as bad now that Romano's not running the ER. He was an excellent surgeon but he lacked in people skills and you know he could be a little brash when he, well all of the time."

"Sounds like Robert." Carol said softly, "he'll be missed."

There was silence around the table again. Before anyone said anything, "well I have a job for you down at the hospital, its not County but I think you'll fit in. And if I remember you right, you were one hell of a pediatrician, they had an opening down at Children's here in Seattle so I threw your name out and they would like to meet you with before making anything formal but your resume spoke for itself, they think pretty highly of your over at CHOP."

"I loved working at CHOP." She said sighing softly now, "but Children's here sounds wonderful Doug, thank you, at least I will have a job and I'm thankful for that."

"Don't mention it Anna, I'm glad to have you on the staff there." Doug said as he took a sip from the coffee cup, "granted the hours aren't going to be the best, but I'm sure as low man on totem pole you kind of expected that."

"Well I wasn't expecting the day shift, so it's okay. I like working nights anyway. They tend to be as busy if not busier than days anyway." She pushed the food away from her, "I take it your work there too?"

"Yeah I have been there for about three years now." He said, "Started shortly after I got up here, the HMO thing just wasn't for me missed clinical practice to much."

"I can understand. I didn't like working in the management end at CHOP, it just wasn't as fun as patient care, but then I think I must be sick because I have gotten to the point where if I don't puked on at least once in a shift, I haven't been productive."

That mad Doug laugh, "well then I think we definitely have the right person for our staff now. We are a busy hospital but you will also be working with students, right as if you have stepped back into County. Children's is part of the University of Washington's School of Medicine."

"Ah, the good old days of teaching the future of medicine." Anna said gently covering her mouth to prevent a yawn from escaping.

Doug laughed, "Glad to see you are so enthusiastic about teaching."

"Sorry about that Doug, it's been a long and busy day. I think I saw more of Chicago today than I wanted too and then the flight, I'm just worn out." She reached down for her bag grabbing her meds so that she could take them, "If you don't mind I think I will call it a night."

Carol leaned over, "it's not trouble Anna come on I'll show you to where you will be sleeping tonight and then we'll see about finding you something more permanent tomorrow."

"Thanks Carol." Anna said as she scooted back from the table, "thank you again Doug, Carter, goodnight I will see you both in the morning."

After biding the men good night, Carol showed Anna to the bedroom got her settled in before closing the door and letting Anna drift off to sleep. Before returning to the guys in the kitchen.

"How is she really doing Carter," Carol heard Doug as she grabbed the coffee pot filling everyone's cups back up.

"She's holding up." Carter said looking at Doug, "we had a hard time losing him on the way to the airport and I think that she is still worried that he's lurking in Seattle here someplace."

"Don't blame her there, what do you think? Did you guys get out of Chicago with out him following you?" Carol asked as she sat down at the table.

"Yeah I think we did but you can't be too sure these days. I mean if he did follow us on the plane there was no way that he could have gotten his gun with him. But I think he's pretty intent on making sure that his threats to her were followed out. He came pretty close to taking her out at the mansion a couple of days, it's almost as if he's obsessed with Anna rather than in love with her." Carter said looking at the couple sitting across the table from him.

"We'll keep a good eye on her Carter." Doug said looking at him now, "I hate to think of what he has done to her."

"Yeah it wasn't pretty when she first got to County." He said thinking back to that day, "she came in on a gurney pretty banged up and all he could think about was how she was making him miss an important meeting. He doesn't care about her; he just wants to be with her."

Carol sighed now, "She'll have a fresh start here." She said looking at Carter, "you've put her in good hands Carter."

"I couldn't think of anyplace else to send her, where I knew she would be able to know someone yet be far enough away from Max that she wouldn't be easy to find."

"Well granted we're not all that far away, but Seattle is a big city so she shouldn't be hard to hide here." Doug said.

"Yeah I know." Carter said wishful that this was the right place to put her. "I trust you two, and I know the way that you feel about wife beaters Doug. If anyone can keep her safe and out of trouble it's you."

"We'll I'll do what I can. I will not make any promises but I am sure that we can do our best and give her a better life that what she had with him. No woman or child should suffer at the hands of someone who loves them, that's not love." Doug said rather disgusted. "I'll take you guys apartment hunting tomorrow find a secure building and then take her by the hospital show her around a little so that she doesn't get to lost here. It takes a few days but it is not hard to get around once you get the hang of it. Seattle's not that much different from Chicago."

"I'm sure she will," Carter said softly.

Carter, Carol and Doug talked for a little bit longer about how things were in Chicago before they turned in. They would all have a busy day tomorrow trying to get Anna settled in to her new city and her new life.


	16. Seattle Life

_A/N: Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read and review, I'm not begging here but keep reviewing and I will keep writing. Not sure where this story is going to go, it has taken on a life of its own._

**Seattle life**

Anna was slowly settling into her new life in Seattle. It had taken her awhile to learn where everything was and she still had not explored much of the city. She had learned to navigate Philadelphia growing up there it wasn't hard, and then had learned to find her way around Chicago pretty well by the time she had left there again. But Seattle was a different story and a little harder to get around but she was getting there. She was beating on the steering wheel now of the small cherry red rodeo that Carter had bought for her to get around town in, stuck in an early morning traffic jam on the 405. She had the route from the apartment complex that she was staying in just off the east side of Lake Washington to Children's in downtown Seattle. It was a pretty drive and she had learned how to judge a little bit better, how much time it took for her to get from home to work. Doug had helped her get if figured out taking her the day before she started in the morning showing her just how backed up traffic could get. She had only been late once and Doug had laughed at her when she came running into to the hospital since then she had not made that mistake again.

She sung along now with the radio as the traffic crept along slowly but surely, she was getting there, with a latte in one hand she moved the car over into the lane that she needed to exit to get to work. She pulled into the doctor's parking lot and walked into the hospital with that smile on her face.

"Ah, good morning there Doug," Anna said as she tucked her stuff into a locker.

"Good morning to you to there Anna." He said looking at her, "settling into a routine now?"

"Yeah you could say that I am." She replied pulling on her lab coat. "I didn't think that I would learn to love this place like this, but the weather isn't half bad, the drive to work is long but beautiful, and there's coffee just about everywhere you look."

"Ah, I see you have settled into Seattle life just fine." He smiled at her. "Maybe you could have dinner here with Carol and I again one of these nights. The girls really like you and I know that Carol would love to have you over again."

Anna just smiled softly as she placed her stethoscope around her neck, "yeah I would like that. Just let me know when." She said as she headed out the door and off to work.

_Two weeks later…….._

Fifteen more minutes of work and she would have two days off now. Doug said that she was going to be stuck with the night shifts but so far all she had was mostly days and a couple of swing shifts. She had plans to meet Doug and Carol at their house for dinner tonight. She tried not to watch the clock as she finished up with her last tiny patient and headed back to the locker room and lounge to gather up her stuff and head out. She was going to go back to her apartment grab a quick shower before heading over there. She was not due to their house until seven. They were having a late dinner tonight, and then tomorrow they were going out on the lake for lunch and some boating. Anna had never been on a boat and she was looking forward to getting the chance to go out and have some fun. She let herself into her apartment; she really liked the place that Doug and Carter had found for her. The rent was not outrageous, it was just big enough for her with enough space for just one person, and that was all she really needed. She looked at the fireplace in her living room that was a nice touch that she was happy to have. She checked her mail before heading into the bathroom to shower. She let the hot water fall over her body, after the day she had she needed it. Not that it had been a terrible day, just extremely busy for her.

She got out dried off and had just finished changing her clothes when the phone rang. She walked over and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Did you think you could hide from me forever Anna?"

"Max." She said softly as the fear started to set in her heart beating faster. She walked over and checked to make sure the door was locked and dead bolted.

"Ah now is that anyway to talk to your husband?" She heard him ask.

"Well that's just a technicality that I haven't had the chance to rectify yet." She said into the phone walking over to the window to see if she could see him near her apartment. As she scanned the parking lot, she did not see him or anything out of the ordinary.

"Well if you're smart you won't either, you will get your ass back home where it belongs." He said to her.

"Max, I'm not leaving where I am at." She said trying to be firm. However, she knew that was not going to get her anywhere with him.

"Oh Seattle can not be treating you that well." Max said hoping to scare her a little more; he could tell that she was nervous talking to her, "pacing that apartment right now looking to see if you can see me hiding in the parking lot Anna. Please you should know me better than that. Do you think that I would be sitting out in the open where you could see me?"

"No," she said softly, "I am not pacing either now."

"Well no not now your not, but you were." He said, "I'll find you, getting your phone number wasn't that hard so finding out where you are staying shouldn't be that hard either. Moreover, I know your little rich boyfriend went back to Chicago. What are you going to do now that your protector isn't there now?"

"I don't need protecting Max." She said now, "You are not going to bully me anymore."

"No you need protecting from yourself and that's my job." Max said to her. "I'm coming to get you Anna don't forget that and I expect a warm welcome from you when I get there and then you and I are heading back to Philadelphia where you belong."

"You wont' be getting a warm welcome from me, and I am not leaving with you or anyone else for that matter." She said now finding some courage.

"Yeah you will baby just wait and see, you will be home before you know it." He said to her before he hung up the phone. He was not going to tell her when he was coming keep her on her guard for a few days and maybe then, he would show up. He wanted to watch her for a few more days and get a feel for what she did, where she went so that when he made his move he would not make it at the wrong time.

Anna put the phone back down and grabbed her purse locking up her apartment before heading over to Doug's. She burned rubber a little more in her rodeo than she normally would, but even though she tried not to show it on the phone she was terrified. She had no idea how Max would have found her in Seattle, how he would have known to look there of all places, it's not like they had told anyone where they had gone, Carter wouldn't have blabbed where she was staying to Max or given her phone number out. Anna almost could not help but wonder if Max had not hired a private eye to look for her, to turn over rocks and find her no matter how well she had been hidden.

Anna got out of the car but only after looking around and driving past Doug's house probably about 10 times. She was not sure why she had done that. It might have been insane but for some reason she could not shake the feeling that someone was following her even though she was not sure. She got out and almost ran for the door, knocking a little harder than she normally would have.

'Hi Anna," Doug said as he opened the door and could see the fear now in her eyes. "What is wrong?"

Anna got inside, "Max called tonight after I got out of the shower." She said her wet hair still sitting on her shoulders. "I don't know how he got my number. I didn't call him, Carter wouldn't have told him, I have no idea how he's found me."

"Whoa there," Doug said leading her into the kitchen and setting her down at the table, "Max called you here in Seattle?"

"Yes," She said her hands now shaking.

"Okay, we'll figure this out." Doug said looking at her. "There's got to be something that we can do. You don't' need to worry we are not going to let him find you."

"It's too late he already has." She said still shaking now, "he said that he's coming to get me and that he's taking me home one way or another and I really don't want to find my way inside a pine box."

"You won't." Doug said, "We are going to work this out and if you have to stay here for a few days then you stay here. If not we put you up in a hotel for a while until this blows over. Keep you in a crowd of people not alone. And we will call Carter and let him know what's going on."

Anna sighed, "See this is what I didn't want. Everyone is putting their lives in danger trying to keep me out of danger. You have to think of Carol and the girls. My husband is dangerous and I don't want the girls or Carol to be in his line of fire."

"We are going to help you Anna." He said touching her hand as Carol walked into the kitchen seeing that Anna was there now. "Nothing has changed. You are still our friend and we will get this sorted out. You are safe when you are at the hospital, no one can get to you there. The security is great there and we will alert them to Max so they know what to watch out for. There are plenty of places that you can stay but the apartment might be out for a few days, at least not there by yourself because he could do anything between your front door and the parking lot."

Anna just shook her head, "disaster seems to follow me wherever I go." She said now keeping her voice, "why won't he just crawl under a rock and die, or at least leave me alone. I am getting tired of this. Tired of it, it is getting older by the minute. You would think that he could find something else to occupy his time with. This is as bad as some cheesy movie, where the woman is constantly running from a nightmare psycho."

"Well you are running from a nightmarish psycho." Doug said, "but this isn't going to end like any of those bad crime movies or shows, you are going to walk away from this a stronger person and he's the one who will end up losing in the end okay Anna, you just have to have faith."

"Faith," she said looking at him, "I can try but I don't how much faith I can have, it is getting to be pretty thin here."

Doug just patted her hand, he would do what he could to keep her safe but until Max decided to make a move the ball was in his court. Doug did not like the fact that his hands were tied right now, especially with Anna's safety and well-being riding on this, but he knew that it would not be long before Max got impatient and made a move. Hopefully he would get impatient and Doug would get lucky Max's next move would be stupid enough and preventable just enough to send him down the road, with a nice chunk of jail time and Anna would walk away divorced and unharmed.


	17. Now or Never

_**Now or Never**_

_A/N: Thanks again to everyone whose read and reviewed, many thanks the encouragement to keep going is high motivation. Keep them coming! Sorry that this update took so long but this chapter was harder to write than I thought it would be. It took awhile for the creative juices to start flowing again._

....6 months later.................

Anna's life was routine now, work at the hospital then home. She had no social life fearing that being out in the open would make her easier to spot, more likely to been seen by people she didn't want seeing her. Giving Max opportunity to strike was the last thing she wanted to do, but as the months had passed she felt safer and more secure there. There had been no more phone calls and no threats; maybe he only had been able to get a hold of a phone number and nothing more. Anna hoped that she had seen the last of a soon-to-be ex-husband.

There were dinner dates of course with Doug and Carol and some nights of babysitting Tess and Kate for them so that they themselves could go out on the town and enjoy a couple's night with out the children. After everything that they had done for her, Anna was more than willing to watch the girls for a few hours on a Friday night.

She had been sitting on Doug and Carol's couch now, the girls fast asleep, reading one of the annals that she needed to catch up on, for a couple of hours now. She glanced up at the clock, seeing that it was getting late and Doug and Carol would be home anytime now. She set the journal down and went upstairs quietly checking on the girls before walking back downstairs. Out of habit, she double-checked to make sure the doors were locked and that the house was as secure as it could be.

She settled back down, reading as a flash of lightening illuminated the sky followed by the loud boom of thunder. She could hear the rain starting to fall against the patio outside the door. As another bolt made the lights in the house flicker she could see the giant raindrops hitting the patio now, a downpour accompanied the storm. She curled her long legs up under her trying to concentrate on reading. She sat there for a few minutes listening to the storm moving thru wondering if she should go and find some candles or a flashlight in case the power did go completely out. With the flickering lights now, she was not sure if it would stay on thru the rest of the storm.

She heard a rattling now at the front door and a rain soaked Doug with his jacket over Carol's head enter the kitchen area. She got up and headed in getting the both a cup of hot coffee.

"How was your evening?" Anna asked setting the cups down for them.

"We had a wonder time, that is until we got drenched walking in the park. Guess that's what I get for planning a moonlight romantic stroll." Doug said looking at Carol softly.

Anna laughed softly, "I'm glad you two had a chance to have some good wet fun. You can't say that it wasn't," Anna made the quote motion with her hands now, "clean fun."

Carol laughed now, "Yes my romantic man, trying to sweep me off my feet, ended up making me look like a drowned rat."

Anna automatically with out thinking about it much reached back to laundry basket handing Carol a towel, "well here have some coffee warm up since you are both soaked." She tossed the towel now to Doug. "Maybe it will let up enough so that I don't drown when I go to go home." She smiled at them both as she started to gather up what she had brought. "The girls were angels, good as gold, ate dinner with no troubles, bathed and tucked in. I love watching them for you."

"Why is it that they are angels for everyone else, but little hellions for us?" Carol asked looking at Doug with a smile on her face.

"Ah that's because Auntie Anna spoils them whenever she gets the chance." Anna said, "I know I shouldn't but it's rather fun."

Carol smiled at Anna, "you are family to us." She said softly, "Aunt Anna can spoil them all she wants. God knows there Daddy spoils them."

"I do not." Doug chirped in.

"Those little girls have you wrapped around their fingers Doug." Carol said smiling at him.

Anna just laughed softly, "okay well it's getting late I should be heading home. You know you can call me anytime you need me to watch them for you."

"Yes, thank you Anna." Carol said, "It's nice to have someone that the girls like to keep an eye on them so that we can have a peaceful dinner."

"Let me walk you out." Doug said getting up from the kitchen table.

The rain was letting up a little now, "I got it Doug," Anna said picking up her things and heading for the door, "no sense in us both getting wet, or in your case wet again. Have a good night; I'm glad you had fun." She said.

"Thanks again Anna." Anna heard Carol call as she darted out the door. Doug followed Carol's voice, "call me when you get home." Anna darted now for her car once in she gave a quick wave as she started the car and headed for home. The roads were wet now and it took her a little longer than normal to get home with all the standing water. She drove carefully down the street to her apartment parking her rodeo in its normal spot. She glanced around not seeing anything to out of the ordinary as she ran for the door among the giant raindrops shaking her head, as she pulled out the outside door key. It was nice living in a secure building but when it rained, it was also a pain.

"I was wondering when you'd get back." She heard a voice say from behind her. Anna knew who with out turning around whom it was and her hands started to shake now. She thought about turning around but she knew that if she just turned the key and shot thru the door once it closed he would not be getting inside. Then she could call Doug, the police or anyone else who would listen to her.

Anna was amazed at how well she held it together as she turned the key and darted thru the door pushing it shut behind her. What she did not count on was his foot blocking her from shutting the door all the way. Anna kicked at the foot in the door trying to get him to move it but Max pushed against the door. He had always been stronger than she had and she knew she was on the losing end of the battle but she was not about to give up. She put her weight into keeping the door from opening any further than it was hoping that one of the people in the building who work swing would be coming home any minute now and that would either scare him away or get him to relent long enough that she could get to her apartment.

There was no one that seemed to be coming to her rescue and Max was wearing her down, the pushing on the door was getting to be to where she could not hold him out any longer. She flipped open her cell phone her back pushing frantically trying to hold her ground keeping the door from moving anymore.

"Pick up Doug." She muttered, "Stop Max." She said putting more force behind her voice. "You're not coming in."

"Ross residence," She heard in the phone. While from the other side of the door she heard him, telling her that he was coming in whether she wanted him to or not, that he had every right to see his wife that they needed to talk about this.

"Doug its Anna," She said loud enough that Max would hear that she was calling someone, hoping that he would get the hint and back off, but it did not seem to be working, "Max is here I need some help."

"Anna where are you?"

"I'm in the apartment building out in the main hallway. I thought I could get inside," she was talking a million miles an hour now, "he's here at the front door trying to get in." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Max put his fingers in the doorframe holding onto the door now. She grabbed her keys not thinking but reacting she stabbed at him with her keys jabbing them into his flesh. As his hand went back so did his foot blood dripping from Anna's hand from the inflicted wound. She heard him cussing but she slammed the door shut. "I just stabbed him with my keys, the doors shut." Anna could hear him now as he started banging on the door. She ran as fast as she could up the stairs and for her apartment getting inside and locking the door behind her.

"I'm calling the cops." Doug motioned for Carol to hand him his cell phone.

Anna heard gunshots being fired from downstairs, it was not the same as when she was in Chicago, and it sounded now more like a shotgun going off rather than a small handgun.

"Tell them to hurry." Anna said moving further into the apartment. "Doug he's shooting." She said trying to find a spot that was back far enough in the apartment that if he shot thru the door she would not be in the line of fire. She was terrified now.

"I'm getting you help, get away from the door, get back as far as you can out of the line of fire." Doug said to her trying to keep himself calm so not to upset her even more than she already was.

Doug watched as Carol called the cops not handing the phone off to Doug but calling herself. She rattled off Anna's address to the SPD, telling them everything that she was hearing Doug saying to Anna. She was worried about Anna, knowing that Max was a very dangerous man, with the intent of hurting her.

"Anna they are coming, get back from the door, get behind something." Doug said hoping that would slow down any stray bullets from hitting her.

Anna moved deeper into the apartment now into the bedroom hiding the best she could she had nothing to really get behind, "get behind what Doug." She panicked, "there's nothing in here to hide behind." She crawled along the floor now staying low. The phone was her only connection to the outside world and it was his voice that was the only thing keeping her from going hysterical now.

"Anything Anna," Doug said hearing how frantic she was becoming with the passing seconds, "get down beside the bed, hid under the bed."

Anna moved doing as he told her, hands shaking now hearing the shots getting louder, he had gotten inside the building. She could hear Max yelling out in the hallway. She lowered her voice, "Doug he's outside. I can hear him in the hallway." She was losing control of her fear fast now.

"Just stay put Anna. They will be there soon." Doug was worried about her. He picked up his keys from the table now.

Carol put her hand on his arm, as if she was trying to keep him from going, knowing that he would go no matter what she said or did. Doug had always never tolerated anyone beating up on a woman. Abuse was something that he could not tolerate. She knew the reasons why, but it didn't make her feel any more at ease watching him leave to go help Anna while Max was firing a weapon.

Doug was out the door with out a second thought. All he knew was that Anna was in trouble. They had brought her to Seattle to escape this but it had managed to follow her. She had, had six months of a normal life, and granted she had always been looking over her shoulder, but she had settled in and now her world was being threatened. Doug knew that if given a chance Max would end it all right there and then. Doug could not let that happen he did not know what he would do but knew that he needed to do something. He flew across town keeping Anna on the line. As long as he could hear her, he knew that she was all right for the time being.

He parked his car out in the lot of her building. "Anna are you still okay?"

"Yeah," her voice shaky, she could still hear the gunfire out in the hallway. When an eerie silence filled the building, she did not know what was going on. Then the sound started again. This time she could hear the banging on her door. He was right outside her door now pounding on it. She closed her eyes and said a soft quiet prayer hoping that she would come out of this alive. Something was going to happen; she could feel it in the pit of her stomach. The window, she looked over at the window.

If she landed right, the fall would not be that bad. She was only on the second story. She debated jumping out her own window. There was no other way out if he was outside her door trying to get in. She got up and ran struggling to pull the window open pulling the screen inside so that she could get out it. She tossed it back further into the room the pounding getting louder. She did not know if it was Max trying to break down her door or her heart in her head. She threw her leg up scrambling to get out the window. She heard the door give way. Just a few more feet and she would be out the window. She could not go headfirst that would kill her and she knew it. She got both her legs up as she caught a glimpse of Max now inside. It was now or never. He turned seeing her as their eyes locked. For both of them it was now or never.


	18. Calm after the storm

**Calm after the storm**

_A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger from the last chapter, but I'm updating now asap._

_Thanks to everyone whose reviewed and kept reading!_

Their eyes locked, it was almost now as if time was standing still. Fear radiating from her eyes, and rage emanating from his. It was almost as if they each knew how this was going to end with out the other saying anything. Anna almost thought that she could see a hint of regret in his eyes, but she had to have been imagining that. There was nothing left between them now; she had locked away everything that she might have once felt for him when he had tried to kill her and Abby. That was not something that a man who loved you did.

She reacted now breaking their cold stares at each other as she pushed her body now away from the wet edge of the windowsill that she had been clinging to and curled herself into a ball waiting now as she fell. It seemed as if an eternity had passed for her before she felt the wet grass below making contact with her skin. The hard, wet sponginess of the grass cushioned her fall a little, as she rolled when she hit the ground below.

She could hear the shots; feel the bullets from his gun wiz to close for comfort to her head. She was filled with fear, as she pulled herself the best that she could to her feet, clinging close to the ground as she scrambled to run. She had no idea where she was trying to run to, but she knew that she needed to find some form of cover, darting into the darkness of the night now. Lightening flashed again lighting up the dark Seattle sky giving off an eerie feeling as she moved swiftly now, her fear pushing her to run. She darted behind some cars now as she neared the parking lot. His voice screaming obscenities as she ran, hearing him, how upset he was, deepened the fear in her, the fear that was pulling at the very depths of her inner soul now.

Time taking its own time in passing for her; no matter how fast she tried to go, it seemed as if she was not getting anywhere. She was frozen in space, frozen in a fear that's grip would never lessen its terrifying hold on her. She felt as if she was going to be running for the rest of her life. There was no safe place to be away from him. No one who could end this, end his reign of terror on her, set her free to live the life that she now desperately wanted to keep living.

Bolting now thru the darkness, not looking back, knowing if she slowed down even just a bit that he would find the way to catch her, she could feel him behind her now, as she glanced over her shoulder behind her quickly. He had followed her exact path, the relentless firing of shots. Her constant ducking, dodging, fleeing. She ran right into something, she felt strong arms around her pulling her down and behind a car. She felt her entire body freeze up now. Tension was flowing freely thru her as she started to struggle against the arms that were holding her tightly.

"Shh," Anna heard the voice say, as she then heard police officers yelling at Max to stop and drop his weapon. "It's okay I've got you. You're going to be safe now Anna, I've got you."

She stopped struggling long enough to realize it was Doug holding onto her now. That she had a friend there, and that he had come to help her, to be there to rescue her, yet now he was there to comfort her. She could hear them arguing Max and the police. This was not going to end well she knew that and even though she was scared to death of dying by his hands, she did not want him to die. She silently prayed that he would put the gun down, but she knew that this way the way that he wanted it to end.

Time seemed to stand still yet again for her, the yelling between Max and the officers getting louder. She pulled free of Doug to look over the top of the cruiser that he had pulled her behind.

She could see him there now, waving the gun that he was holding in his hands, she could see that he was looking for her, trying desperately to find her as if he had one more thing that he wanted to say to her before it all ended. She felt Doug pull her back down holding onto her as the gun shots went off again, and then there was silence, no more yelling in the Seattle night, there was just the calm after the storm. Nothing but the silence of the night filling her ears, and the hurt of knowing that he was dead, she felt some relief knowing that the terror would be no more, but there was the heartache of knowing that in the terror ending, his life had ended too.

Doug held her tight now not wanting her to look over that cruiser again, afraid of what she might see. "It's over now Anna, it's all over now and you are going to be safe." He was trying to comfort her now as he could feel her tears spilling. "It's all going to be okay."

She sat there now clinging to him in the night, not wanting to move or look. This chapter of her life ending, moving on was going to be hard to do once again, but she could do it with out fear, fear of being hunted, and fear of being hurt. She had the chance now to start her life over become the woman that she had once been. She was determined to regain her strength, her independence, and stand on her own to feet again.

Five years later.......

She had stayed in Seattle but had gone back and forth between there and Philadelphia on during her time off. Rekindling the broken ties with her family and regaining her life. Things were calm and peaceful again. She had managed with a few bumps to rebuild her life, moving from the apartment, into another one more inside the city. She was still working at the hospital with Doug and spending time with Tess and Kate.

A year after all of this had happened, Keith floated into her life. He was a graphics designer for a web company. They had started seeing each other taking their time getting to know each other. They had dated for over a month before Anna worked up the courage to introduce him to Doug, but those two seemed to hit it off and soon it was Doug, Carol, Anna and Keith going out with out the girls. Summer barbeques by the lake, boating out to watch the sunset from Lake Washington, and baseball games, she knew this was how life was supposed to be. They were married the spring of 2007, outdoors in with the sun setting over Lake Washington. Anna was finally happy.

Now here five years after she thought that she would never get her life back together, surrounded by her friends and family, in the hospital where she had restarted her life again, Anna and Keith brought their son, Jonathan into the world, surrounded by a love that she never thought that she would ever feel.


End file.
